Image Attribution: “Copper From the Hood” by Terryl Atkins is licensed under CC BY-SA. British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, UK (See interactive map)
This work by Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas makes reference to the spiritual, healing and status importance of copper shields to his Haida heritage. The motifs that are a traditional part of Haida painting and carving cover polished copper on the hood from a large late 20th century gas-guzzling American made car. Rather than ‘Boyz in the Hood’ which refers to a 1991 movie featuring the lives of young African American men and inner-city gangs in contemporary society, ‘Copper From the Hood’ provides a double-entendre by referring to these American cars littering backyards in a different kind of hood (neighborhood) of Indigenous people equally disenfranchised.