He intended to express his ancestors' visual traditions into a contemporary form. He gradually explored larger sculptures in bronze, red cedar and Nootka Cypress (yellow cedar), usually portraying figures, animals, and scenes from Haida mythology. Working in the traditional forms and modern media (usually gold, silver and argillite), Reid began by making jewellery. He assisted in the partial reconstruction of a Haida village in the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology. During this time Reid also worked on salvaging artifacts, including many intricately carved totem poles, which were then moldering in abandoned village sites. He became greatly interested in the works of Edenshaw, working to understand the symbolism of his work, much of which had been lost along with many Haida traditions. In 1951, Reid returned to Vancouver, where he eventually established a studio on Granville Island. Upon completing his studies, Reid made his first Haida-inspired piece of jewelry, a bracelet resembling the ones he saw his maternal aunt wear when he was a child. ![]() During his spare time, he made regular trips to the Royal Ontario Museum and admired the carved Haida pole installed in the main stairwell, which originated from his grandmother's village of T'aanuu. In 1948, the couple moved to Toronto, where Reid further developed his keen interest in Haida art while working as a radio announcer for CBC Radio and studying jewelry making at the Ryerson Institute of Technology. In 1944, Reid married his first wife, Mabel van Boyen. Gladstone first taught Reid about Haida art, and through him, Bill inherited his tools from his great-great-uncle Charles Edenshaw, a renowned artist who died the year Reid was born. looking for an identity which he had not found in modern western society." In Skidegate Reid spent time with his maternal grandfather, Charles Gladstone, a traditional Haida silversmith. He desired to connect with his relatives and his Indigenous identity, later commenting that "in turning to his ancestors, in reclaiming his heritage for himself, he was. When Reid was in his early twenties, he visited his ancestral home of Skidegate for the first time since he was an infant. However, Reid was raised without knowledge of his Haida heritage due to the oppressive measures of the Indian Act. William Ronald Reid Jr., was born in Victoria, British Columbia his father was American William Ronald Reid Sr., of Scottish-German descent and his mother, Sophie Gladstone Reid, was from the Kaadaas gaah Kiiguwaay, Raven/Wolf Clan of T'anuu, more commonly known as the Haida, one of the First Nations of the Pacific coast.
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