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double-headed drum of Chief Oshawana
double-headed drum of Chief Oshawana
double-headed drum of Chief Oshawana
Anishinaabe double-headed drum attributed to Chief Oshawana of Walpole Island. Made with a single piece of rawhide stretched around a wooden frame and sewn with sinew. Red painted circles, and parallel and diagonal lines found on both sides of the drum. Dr. Oronhyatekha Ethnology collection.
Oshawana was Anishinaabe
GRASAC generated by AN
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Rawhide, sinew, wood, nails, reddish paint
Double-headed drum covered with rawhide, now dark brown. A single piece of hide has been folded and stretched around the drum and sewn with sinew along the centre half-way around the wooden rim, looped handle of tanned hide.
Motifs applied in reddish paint. One drum head has a large circle in the centre, and two pairs of corresponding double diagonal lines pointing inward on either side. The other drum head has a small red circle in the centre, and at 90 degree intervals are four pairs of parallel lines pointing inward: two facing pairs are at right angles, and the other two are diagonal, pointing upwards.
In pictures with red push pins, the pins mark the places where the stiching begins.
Provenance
F. Barlow Cumberland, Catalogue and Notes of the Oronhyatekha Historical Collection (Toronto: Independent Order of Foresters, 1904), p 23.
Item 66 "Tom-tom Drum used by Indians at Feasts and Ceremonies. The tom-tom of Chief Oshawana, said to have been used in his Tribe for over a century. Drums of similar form were used by the Pagan Indians at their "Green Corn dances" in the incantations and celebration of the giving of names to the children."
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown artist, double-headed drum of Chief Oshawana. Currently in the Royal Ontario Museum, HD6342. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2008; GRASAC item id 1032.
GRASAC team research trip to the Royal Ontario Museum, Dec 15-19 2008, funded by SSHRC Aboriginal Research Grant. Participants: Heidi Bohaker, Alan Corbiere, Lewis Debassige, Anne De Stecher, Darlene Johnston, Stacey Loyer, Trudy Nicks, Ruth Phillips
Dec 17: Ethnology team Cory Willmott, Ruth Phillips, Stacey Loyer, Trudy Nicks, assisted by Tracey Forester
GRASAC team research trip to the Royal Ontario Museum, Dec 15-19 2008, funded by SSHRC Aboriginal Research Grant. Participants: Heidi Bohaker, Alan Corbiere, Lewis Debassige, Anne De Stecher, Darlene Johnston, Stacey Loyer, Trudy Nicks, Ruth Phillips
Dec 17 Ethnology team: Trudy Nicks, Ruth Phillips, Cory Willmott, Stacey Loyer, assisted by Tracey Forrester