J37-Hy'Shqa
88cm
Hy’Shqa is an adult female Orca born to mother Sanusg (J-14) who is daughter of Granny (J-2). Her siblings are Suttles (J-40) and Se-Yi’-Chn (J-45) and she has two calves T’ílem Íngles (J-49) and J-. "Hy'Shqa" is a Coast Salish/Samish word for "blessing" or "thank you." The name was given to her during a traditional potlatch ceremony held by the Samish Nation on October 6, 2001.
Southern residents travel in large, matriarchal social groups called pods around British Columbia, Washington and Oregon but can also travel more widely. They have a very complex social structures and different pods of orcas can even “speak” different dialects. Resident pods depend on fish as their main source as prey in contrast to transient orcas who also hunt and eat marine mammals. The southern residents were once hunted for display in marine parks around the world and their population has struggled to recover especially in the highly human populated waters they call home. Human impacts such as pollution, boat traffic and marine noise paired with a decrease in their prey availability and prey quality has added to the southern resident’s struggle to survive in their ancestral waters. We need to learn more about these incredible animals so that we can learn to be better neighbours to them.
This buoy was found by Ocean Adventures Charters on their beach clean-up initiative in the summer of 2021. It likely came from a crab fishery, either recreational or commercial to mark where the traps have been placed on the sea floor. It was found in the Normansell Islands near Aristazabal Island on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. The recycled line it hangs from was once used in the Pacific Halibut fishery and was donated to me by a local fisherman. I have tied it in a flat lanyard knot and lashed the ends with waxed sailing twine.
I have painted Hy’shqa in a kelp forest with brooding and proliferating anemones growing on the bull kelp stalks. plumose anemones and green surf anemones grow along the bottom with ochre and vermillion seastars. There are urchins, a sea peach (type of tunicate) and orange colonial tunicates also living along the bottom of the forest as well.
Thank you for supporting the creation of art from waste, 10% of the proceeds from the sale of this buoy will be donated to Orca Lab. The work of Orca Lab is based on the philosophy that it is possible to study the wild without interfering with lives or habitat and they have been working on this coast since 1970. Please visit Orcalab.org to learn more.