• Materials: Silver 925 / Sterling Silver
• Categories: Brooches, Pendants
• Artists: Dan Wallace
• Totem Symbols: Thunderbird
• Styles: Canadian First Nations

Thunderbird

The Thunderbird represents protection, power, and strength. He is considered the strongest of the totem animals, possessing supernatural power and credited with creating storms. When he blinks, lighting comes out of his eyes, and when he flaps his wings, thunder roars. He hunts and eats whales by using the two lightning snakes kept under his wings.

Dan Wallace

Dan Wallace is a hereditary Chief and is a descendant of the Cape Mudge Laich-kwil-taich and Haida Nations. Coming from two distinct cultural backgrounds, Dan has an abundance of creativity to draw upon. His crest is the Double-Finned Killerwhale. Dan was raised in the Wei-Wai-Kay Village on Quadra Island by a family of carvers (Ruben, Geoff, and Tom Wallace). He is mostly self-taught and has been carving as a full-time artist since 2000. His influences include: Derek Wilson, Hank Robertson, and Reg Davidson. Dan was featured in the comprehensive 'Totems to Turquoise' exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, 2005. Furthermore, one of his silver carvings was selected for the front of the exhibition catalogue. This significant show was at the Vancouver Museum from October, 2006 to March, 2007. In the autumn of 2007, Dan began teaching the Northwest Coast Aboriginal Jewellery Program at the Native Education Centre in Vancouver. He also taught this program in 2009 and will be teaching in 2010 as well. Dan was recently included in the Bill Reid Gallery's 'Continuum: Vision and Creativity on the Northwest Coast' exhibition, in 2009.