Robert Davidson Sr.
CULTURAL GROUP:
Haida
BIRTHPLACE:
Massett
Robert Davidson Sr. was a respected and high-ranking man of the Eagle lineage in Massett. He was noted as a skilled carpenter. Throughout the years, he helped build the local Anglican Church in 1919, designed and built his own houses and was commissioned to build two traditional Haida canoes with his brother. A commercial fisherman by trade, he took up argillite carving in his later years. Robert Davidson Sr. was also considered a keeper of the songs and passed along knowledge of Haida composer Naahiilaans, whose songs have now been restored and recorded in the Songs of Haida Gwaii Legacy Project. He helped guide his son, artist Claude Davidson, on his landmark pole raising in Massett in 1969. He is the grandfather of renowned artist Robert Davidson.