Our Logo

Hello from a sunny day in Vancouver!

Yesterday in RRN news we had a long meeting clearing up some of our "to-do's" for the site. This sounded easier than it actually was, and 3 long hours later we were cleared up and back hard at work.

At any rate, one thing that became clear in this meeting is that we're pretty proud of what we're doing, and there are some really solid reasons behind our project - which makes everyone happy and more focused in the end. So I thought I'd share some of our "warm and fuzzy" sentiments here weekly.

So what I'll be doing is updating some user feedback we receive, maybe some good reviews and general things people have to say about the mission and vision behind the RRN.

But for today I thought I'd share something that is posted on our wall here at work, and not everyone gets to see. It's the description of the RRN logo - created especially for this purpose, by William Wasden Jr. and Andrea Sanborn last year.

The RRN logo work was created collaboratively by Terry Point (Musqueam Indian Band) and William Wasden Jr. (Wa is a member of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation). Both Terry and Wa were RRN interns in 2004-2005.

Terry suggested design elements based on traditional navigation and creation themes: messengers would travel by canoe to bring news to communities and invite them to gatherings; salmon, a symbol of renewal, navigate through streams and oceans, guided by the stars. These ideas allude to the RRN’s goal of facilitating community renewal and knowledge by navigating through the Internet and museum collection management systems. Wa, the artist, added his ideas: raven brought the moon, sun, fire, tides and salmon to his people. Umeł, Chief of the Ancients Raven needs to be treated carefully, because he is the all-present trickster. He has human qualities and is able to transform himself into a man; the figure in the beak represents that ability. The dorsal fin of a killer whale is depicted by the Raven’s beak with a stylized ovoid hole in it. The front seat of a sea hunter's canoe will have a hole carved in it and when the hunter dies, the seat will become his dorsal fin when he transforms into a killer whale. The human face in the beak represents the raven's human qualities as he is able to transform between forms and also connects to the sea hunter. He holds the messenger canoe in his mouth, upside down. This refers to people saving young salmon caught in a river with low water levels by placing them in a canoe and dumping them into another river, the salmon would survive and colonize the new stream. In the centre of the canoe is a box of treasures, representing the knowledge being returned to the communities through the RRN. The salmon in the logo are wild, indicated by the presence of the adipose fins; the male is depicted above the female as if in spawning position and both their tailfins continue as negative space along the design of the raven. There are four stars with four points each, because four is a sacred number. The colour is Ricketts blue – a shade introduced to the Northwest Coast as a laundry blueing agent. Wa has observed that this particular blue shade is used in art around the world and seems to have close representational associations with the supernatural.

You will see this logo all over the site, it's even hiding in our menu bar at the top of the page. Reading this kind of description always makes me excited, and it reconfirms one of our main goals of collaboration between community members and museum professionals to further knowledge exchange. As a museums studies student, it's one of the many reasons I love working for the RRN.


-Hannah