“Life Is a Poem”: Oral Literary and Visual Arts of the Northwest Coast

Abstract

Elder Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Kheixwnéi, a poet and oral literary scholar and a mentor of the author, told the author “Life is a poem”. This essay will explore the ways in which the oral literary and visual arts of the Northwest Coast interact, how artists across multiple disciplines attain knowledge and develop as artists, and the ways in which the arts sing the poetry of Tlingit life. Examining the relationship between the arts will deepen one’s understanding of each art and illuminate how they inform and enrich one another.

Keywords

• Northwest Coast art
• Tlingit art
• American art history
• Indigenous art
• Native art
• Native American oral literature