Freda Diesing, Old Woman with Labret, 1973

The mask’s expressive carving—finely incised lines radiating from the mouth, deeply set eyes, and the tactile adornment of cedar and shell—bridges past and present. The open mouth suggests breath or utterance: a voice re-emerging. In the Haida world view, masks are animate presences rather than static objects; when worn during a dance, they speak. Even as a gallery piece, Old Woman with Labret retains that vitality, inviting recognition of Indigenous womanhood as both historical and ongoing. The Elder woman is at once ancestor and contemporary figure—a reminder that the values she embodies still shape community life, from governance to art and ceremony.

Born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Diesing began carving in her forties, inspired by Haida artists Iljuwas Bill Reid (1920–1998) and Robert Davidson (b.1946). She was among the first women of her generation to carve totemic forms publicly and to teach them formally. Like many Indigenous children of her time, she attended a Catholic residential school, an experience that separated her from her language and community. Yet, the trajectory of her life and art would become a reversal of that disconnection. Through carving, Diesing transformed loss into instruction and tradition into a living pedagogy.