Bill Reid
(1920–)
(–1998)
Bill Reid
1920–1998
Bill Reid (1920–1998) was an acclaimed goldsmith, carver, sculptor, writer, and community activist of Scottish/German and Haida descent born in Victoria, BC. He is one of Canada’s most celebrated artists, accomplished numerous forms of media including, carving in wood, gold, silver, and argillite, and casting in bronze. His notable work includes the monumental sculpture Haida Village placed at the University of British Columbia.
In early adulthood, Reid travelled to many places in Canada and developed an early interest in Haida Culture while he was a CBC radio announcer. He studied jewelry and engraving at Ryerson Institute, Toronto (1948) and investigated the arts of the Haida soon after. He was fascinated by the indigenous ways of jewelry-making, in the hopes to create bracelets like that of his grandfather, Charles Gladstone, and other Haida relatives. He was also deeply influenced by the bracelets made by his great-great-uncle, Charles Edenshaw. To further his studies, Reid later attended the Central School of Art and Design in London, England (1968).
Among his major works include Raven and the First Humans (1980) at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, the full-sized canoe commissioned as part of Expo 86, Lootaas (1986), and the Spirit of Haida Gwaii (1991) for the Canadian embassy in Washington, DC (1991). Reid has been awarded multiple honorary degrees from York University, the University of British Columbia, The University of Toronto, Trent University, among others. Reid also participated as an activist, blocking logging roads to help save the forests of Haida Haanas. In 1994, he received the Order of BC and the National Aboriginal Lifetime Achievement Award.