Forming Hemlock Cakes

• Other Authors: G.F. MacDonald Collection
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1972
• Subjects: Tsimshian > Gitxsan > Kitwankul > Kitwancool >; Tsimshian > Gitxsan > Gitanyow > Kitwankul > Kitwancool >; Edith; Gitanyow; Tsimshian; Tsimshian*
• Online Access: https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/billreid-1055/forming-hemlock-cakes

Edith Campbell making hemlock cakes. Plastic is being used to keep the cakes from sticking to the inside of the box. In the old days thimbleberry leaves would have been used. These scenes of food processing were initiated in order to fill some of the gaps left by earlier anthropologist and cultural observers among the Gitxsan. The objective was to create colour images of practices that were partially captured in earlier black and white photographs and in early texts such as those written by Marius Barbeau and William Beynon. The Book Builders of 'Ksan produced a volume on these collecting and processing practices titled Gathering what the Great Nature provided: food traditions of the Gitksan, by the people of 'Ksan.