Guujaaw

Gidansda Giindajin Haawasti Guujaaw, also known as Gary Edenshaw, (born 1953), is a Haida environmental and political activist and leader, singer, dancer and artist. He is a hereditary chief of the Haida Nation of Haida Gwaii, in British Columbia, Canada, and was president of the Council of the Haida Nation for four terms, from 1999 to 2012. He is a special advisor to the Coastal First Nations.

Family

is a Haida matrilineally descended from , a family of the Raven moiety from the village of Skedans . was born in Masset, named in Haida, in the northern part of Haida Gwaii. learnt traditional dance, oral stories and canoeing from his great-grandmother and other Haida elders. He has supported protection of the black bears of Haida Gwaii. He influenced David Suzuki, who said "Guujaaw changed the way I viewed the world and sent me on a radically different course of environmentalism".

participated in the revival of Haida songs and dances and traditional arts such as the building of canoes, longhouses and coppers. He was an assistant to Haida wood carver Bill Reid. He has made totem poles; one was commissioned by the Canadian government in 1997 as a gift to Indonesia.

was one of the founders of the Council of the Haida Nation in 1974. He became president of the council in 1999. He has written for the council's publication. The same month he and a group of others from Haida participated in the First International Forum of United Indigenous Peoples, held in Pau, France.

In December 2012, announced that he would not run again as president of the Council of the Haida Nation.

Media appearances

has appeared on Sesame Street with Haida child dancers, on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programme On The Road Again in 1991, and in a BBC documentary, Islands of the People, in 1986.