PAINTING BOXES
School children make small button blankets, and weavers donate their time to teaching and making cedar bark mats, both which we use to wrap our ancestors remains in preparation for burial. Traditional bentwood boxes with Haida designs are hand-crafted by Haida artists, who every year teach this art to youth.  These bentwood boxes are used as the coffins for our ancestors when they return home.  These traditional burial preparations are conducted as directed by our Hereditary Leaders and Elders.

Upon returning home to Haida Gwaii, our ancestors are wrapped in the button blankets and cedar bark mats, placed in bentwood burial boxes, and buried with traditional ceremonies.  The repatriation is completed with a feast in honour of our ancestors, and requires many people to volunteer to cook, bake, set up and decorate, conduct ceremonies, sing and dance, and many other things. The burial and the feast, like many of the HRC planning and fundraising activities, are open to the general public as well as visitors so that people can participate and learn about repatriation and Haida way of life.