A Haida Wedding

Review By Nigel Baker-Grenier

March 26, 2025

Indigenous scholars describe colonialism as an imbalance of power perpetuated through systems of oppression reinforced across time and space – ultimately privileging settler society at the expense of Indigenous Peoples. There are many visions put forward by Indigenous thinkers on how to emancipate ourselves from these cycles of oppression. The most persuasive argument, in my opinion, is that we heal ourselves through acts of decolonial love. There is no truer expression of decolonial love than reclaiming Indigenous laws and ceremony around marriage.

In 1996, Gid7ahl-Gudsllaay Lalaxaaygans Gaadaaldyas Terri-Lynn Willliams-Davidson and Guud san glans Robert Davidson completed a Haida Gud iina Gihl / Gud íineehl (wedding) ceremony. It was the first time that a Haida couple was married in the traditional way in over a century, due to the impacts of the potlatch ban, Christian missionaries, and assimilationist policies under the Indian Act. The story of this historic event is recorded in A Haida Wedding.

Terri-Lynn and Robert put great care into each aspect of the ceremony. Their invitation included both clan crests and personal symbolism. Robert’s clan travelled to the wedding by canoe, as his oceangoing Ancestors did for millennia, seeking permission from Terri-Lynn’s clan to land on the beach at Skidegate. In accordance with Terri-Lynn and Robert’s vision, the wedding ceremony itself blended together the best elements of Haida weddings documented in the historic and ethnographic record, showing that Haida law is both steeped in history and a living tradition. The feast that followed served foods that celebrated the rich bounty of Haida Gwaii. The Haida dancing illustrated the Oral Histories, songs, and Supernatural Beings of the communities of Massett and Skidegate, made tangible through embodied practice. The gifts distributed to witnesses affirmed the Haida law of reciprocity, validating the ceremony under Haida law. Twenty years later, Terri-Lynn and Robert renewed their vows at a Potlatch in Massett, a testament to their enduring love.

Marriage in Haida society is more than a joinder of two individuals: it is a collective process of forming alliances between clans under Haida law. Indigenous laws do not live in a vacuum, rather they are living traditions practiced as a web of relationships that bind the human, natural, and Supernatural Beings of our world. Therefore, this is not just Terri-Lynn and Robert’s story: it is one for everyone who has experienced love and wants make the world a more just place in the wake of colonialism.

A Haida Wedding is as visually striking as it is intellectually stimulating, and it would fare equally well on a coffee table as it would in an academic library. Text is used sparingly, yet each sentence is constructed with elegance and there to serve a purpose. Throughout, the pages overflow with vibrant images, intimately illustrating the wedding and the people that it brought together.

By being true to themselves and steadfast in their dedication to Haida culture, Terri-Lynn and Robert give each of us the courage to do the same in relation to our own lives and communities. For this reason, A Haida Wedding fills me with hope for a future in which decolonial love is realized.