Orcas in Art
throughout the ages
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Orca Motif on a basket made by the Tlingit (indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest) circa 1910
(Photographer: Joe Mabel, source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tlingit_basket_with_orca_motif_c._1900_detail_01.jpg)
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Killer Whale made out of a Cucumber
A more lighthearted (and personal favorite) example of
Killer Whales in art is this Orca carved out of a cucumber. The only description the artist, Brock Davis,
had of this piece was “I was supposed to cut this up for
a salad (3).” Brock Davis is an
illustrator, designer, photographer, creative director and artist from
Minneapolis, Minnesota. If you glance
around his website, you can see the various types of ads he has created, his
editorials, and some of his current projects which feature various food items,
every day items, and animals (3). I
personally am not sure what Davis was trying to convey with his work, but I
find it to be an interesting, and fun perspective of Killer Whales in Art. I think this piece shows the simple beauty of
Orcas, and does not reflect them as vicious animals, or show them in
mythology.
Orcas in Literature
and Folklore
The
Killer Whale is a prominent feature in many folklores from the Haida people (indigenous
people from British Columbia (4)). The Haida believed that Killer Whales
were manifestations of deceased ancestors, and that if one saw a Killer Whale
near shore, then it was an ancestor trying to communicate with his/her
relatives. There are even stories of
Killer Whales knocking over canoes so that the deceased relatives (the Orcas)
can be closer to their living relatives (5). The Haida believed that
Killer Whales had been created when a man named Natcitlaneh
was abandoned on an island by his brother-in-law. He was rescued from the
island by some Sea Lions, and out of gratitude, Natcitlaneh healed their
chief. To thank him, Natcitlaneh was given eight wooden Killer Whale
figurines. When the figurines were placed into the sea, they turned into
real life Killer Whales, and avenged Natcitlaneh by killing his brother-in-law
(5).
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Orca statue made by the Haida
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This story explains the Haida’s story of the creation of Killer
Whales. It presents the Killer Whales as
capable of having feelings, and able to enact revenge. I think Orcas were chosen over other species
because they were a common sight in the daily lives of the Haida. They are also large, powerful creatures that
demand respect, but are also majestic, and intelligent. In my opinion, Orcas make a great symbol for
deceased loved ones because of these characteristics that are shared by humans. The Orcas contribute to the story by
representing creatures that can right wrongs, and work as symbols for the
dead.
Orcas in Film
(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6bSTWtAo0U)
In my opinion, the most notable
children’s movie about Orcas is Free
Willy. Free Willy is about a young
Killer Whale who is captured by whalers, and put on display in a Marine
park. The Killer Whale, named Willy, is
disruptive in captivity, but a young boy named Jesse befriends him. Eventually, Jesse and Willy are able to form
a bond, and Jesse begins to teach Willy tricks.
On the day of his first show, Willy damages his tank because children
are antagonizing him. Later, two men
come in and further tamper with Willy’s tank so that the water is slowly
leaking out. Jesse realizes that Willy
is in danger, so he decides that Willy needs to be released back into the wild
where he can return to his family. As
Jesse tries to release Willy a henchman chases him. Willy is finally released into the wild, but
he must jump over a tall seawall to escape into the wild. Jesse signals Willy to jump, and Willy makes
his iconic jump over the seawall and into freedom. I think Orcas were chosen for this movie as
they are “cute”, and they fascinate children.
I think it is also easy for people to related to Orcas, as humans and
Orcas both care deeply for their families.
Trailer for Orca or Orca: The Killer Whale
The only clear example I found of a movie about Orcas for
adults was the 1977’s horror movie Orca. The film was criticized for its plot’s
similarity to Jaws. The main character is named Nolan, and he
starts of the film looking to capture a Great White Shark to put into an
aquarium. The Killer Whale comes in and
kills the shark that Nolan is trying to capture. Nolan then tries to catch the Killer Whale, but
accidentally harpoons the Orca’s mate, and kills the Orca’s child. The Orca then begins to take revenge on Nolan
and the surrounding village by sinking boats, destroying fuel lines, and
killing people. The film ends with the
Orca killing most of the characters, and finally killing Nolan. Once this is done, the Orca swims away and
the terror is over (6). I think Orcas
were chosen for this movie because they already have the word “killer” in their
name. They are large predators that can
be fearsome. They are also very
intelligent animals that could be considered capable of revenge. I think they were also chose because they are
not the stereotypical shark, large cat, etc.
There is a clear difference in the intended messages of Free Willy and Orca. Free Willy is about
the bond between Jesse and Willy. It
also shows the strong bond between Willy and his family, and emphasizes that
Orcas live with their families. Orcas
in this movie are portrayed in a sympathetic light, and are not necessarily
shown behaving as they would in the wild.
In Orca, Orcas are portrayed
solely as killers that are capable of revenge.
Both movies emphasize that Orcas are social creatures that appear to
care about their families, and that Orcas are intelligent.
Orcas in
Religion and Mythology
As
I mentioned before, many of the indigenous people of the northern pacific used
Orcas in their mythology. The Tlingit
had many stories that evolved around Orcas.
The best story I could find was the story of the creation of Orcas. A Tlingit man decided to make Killer
Whales. He tried to carve the whales out
of red cedar, hemlock, and a bunch of different kinds of wood. He put all of his figurines into the ocean
and tried to make them swim away. All of
the figurines merely floated to the surface.
Eventually, he tried yellow cedar.
When these figurine were placed into the water they grew, and swam
away. The man told the Killer Whales
that they could eat seal, halibut, and other sea creatures, but they could
never harm a human. Thus, the Killer
Whale was created (10).
There
are many other Tlingit stories that feature the Orcas interacting with
man. One story recalls that Killer
Whales could come out of the sea, and camp on the beach. Once man spotted them they would jump back
into the sea. Another, more gruesome story, recalls the
story of a man whose wife had been stolen by the Orcas. In order to find his wife, the man travelled
to see the Shark Chief. The Shark Chief
told the man that his wife had married one of the Whale Chiefs, and that in
order to get her back, he would need to steal her from the Whale Chief. The man agreed, and was told that there was a
slave who always cut wood for the Whale Chief.
If the man could break the slave’s axe, then he would be allowed access
to the camp under the guise of trying to help fix the axe. The man could then create a diversion and
steal his wife back. Long story short,
the Shark people and the Whale people go to war, and the whole bay is filled
with Sharks and Whales. What happened to
the man and his wife is unknown (10).
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Killer
Whale statue made by Laurence Skow c. 2007
(source:
http://www.justart.ca/orca-whale-panel-laurence-scow-1123-pictures.htm)
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I
think all of these stories help explain the presence of Killer Whales in the
waters around where the Tlingit lived.
All these stories show the Killer Whale as a fearsome predator, but one
that does not harm humans as well. I
think this is interesting because I think today’s society has a difficult time
remembering that Orcas are predators just like Lions or Tigers. While they are “cute” and enjoyable to watch,
they should not be messed with. Their
size and strength should be respected, and I think the Tlingit were more
cognizant of that. I think the Tlingit
were very respectful of Killer Whales, and accepted them as a part of their
everyday lives. Many of their stories
featured the Killer Whales acting out in revenge on humans who had some how
wronged them (10). It portrays Killer
Whales as intelligent, and very similar to humans.
Controversial
Topic- Orcas in Captivity
As
I mentioned in my previous post, Orcas in captivity is a hot button issue right
now. Orcas in captivity are normally
used in marine shows at aquariums/marine parks, or for breeding purposes. Generally, they are kept in captivity solely
for the profit of the aquarium or marine park.
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Orca bleeding out after ramming another Orca
(source: http://www.takepart.com/photos/7-reasons-orcas-and-captivity-dont-mix/1-accelerated-mortality)
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With
recent release of the documentary Blackfish,
more people appear to be focusing on the ethics of keeping Orcas in
captivity. I recently watched Blackfish, and it opened my eyes to the
alternative perception of SeaWorld. I
think more people would be hesitant to go to SeaWorld if they heard how the
Orcas are captured in order to come to SeaWorld. Many captive Orcas were originally taken from their
home pods, and brought to the zoos/aquariums where they now reside. In Blackfish,
the whalers used planes, speedboats, and even bombs in order to herd the
whales into an inlet where they could capture them (7). It is believed by
some that this is a very stressful event for the whale because they are highly
social, and form tight bonds within their pods (2).
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A whale showing marks from “raking” at Loro Parque theme park
(Source: http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/03/14/activists-us-repatriate-seaworld-orcas-dysfunctional-spanish-tanks)
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Blackfish showed quite a few Orcas
who bore marks from raking (an aggressive behavior where one Orca drags its
teeth across the skin of another Orca), and many of the whales fight. Orcas from different pods tend to have
different languages, and cultures. When
the Orcas are then put into one large tank, the whales fight because they may
not be able to communicate, do not understand the culture of the other Orcas,
and they are stressed from being separated from their families. One animal was intent on hurting another, as
told my a former SeaWorld employee, that she rammed another whale with her
head, broke her jaw which cut an artery, and she then bled to death. Besides aggressive behavior, many Orcas show
extreme grief when they are separated from their calves. One of the trainers featured in Blackfish recounted a story where a
mother whale was separated from her two year old daughter. The daughter had been labeled as “unruly” by
SeaWorld executives, and had been removed from its mother to be shipped to
another SeaWorld location. The mother
began to produce cries not seen in nature (a paraphrasing of the trainer’s
words) in order to try to locate her daughter. Clearly, captivity does not
provide for an Orca’s social needs or emotional needs, and put Orcas in
unnecessary danger. In fact, captivity
can shorten an Orca’s lifespan. In the
wild, Orcas may live to be around 100 years old for females, or 60-70 years old
for males. In captivity, Orcas only live
to be around 30-35 years old (7).
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Typical Orca holding tank at SeaWorld
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Tanks
are also not appropriate enclosures for Orcas.
In the wild, Orcas have thousands of miles of open water to swim
in. In captivity, tanks are much smaller
for practical reasons. Parks obviously
cannot create gigantic tanks, but the tanks they have are not large enough for
the number of whales in them. This lack
of space makes it difficult for animals to escape from aggressive behaviors, as
well as burn of energy and frustration.
The concrete tanks also cause the whale’s sonar calls to bounce off of
the concrete, and reverberate back to the whales. This is speculated to drive the whales crazy
(8). Many tanks also do not provide any
sort of stimulation for the Orca. One
trainer guessed that the only time the Orcas were stimulated was when he was
working with them (7). In highly intelligent
creatures like Orcas, this is bound to cause boredom and frustration which
could translate into aggression. This
compounded with the anxiety and frustration harbored in the whales due to
stress from captivity cannot be good for the animal. There have been over 70 reports of aggression
directed towards trainers by Orcas since the 1970s. Many speculate that these attacks are so high
in frequency due to the high levels of frustration and stress found in Orcas in
captivity. This hypothesis is supported
by the fact that there have been no attacks by Orcas in the wild on humans
(7).
SeaWorld
is no longer allowed to bring animals from the wild into captivity. They are now limited only to buying animals
that are already in captivity, or gain animals through their breeding programs. This causes a limited number of whales to be
reproducing within a small community of only about 26 whales. Tilikum (the whale who killed SeaWorld
trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010) has fathered a good majority of the whales born
in a SeaWorld location. There have been
only 28 live births at SeaWorld; 9 of those Orcas are deceased, and 10 are
still with their mothers (9). This in
inhumane as it could cause calves to be deformed, or could cause them to have
mental or emotional issues.
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| (source: http://ihearthellokitty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/hkseaworld9.jpg) |
Initially,
I thought that there was no harm in keeping Killer Whales in captivity. I believed, like many others, that Killer
Whales lived longer, healthier lives in captivity. I also believed that these whales were with
their families, and that they were happy.
While I cannot guess the emotional states of Orcas, I would guess that
they are not the happy animals portrayed in my many Shamu stuffed animals. It makes me feel upset that I went to
SeaWorld and gave money towards the continued confinement of these whales. It also upsets me that SeaWorld does not seem
concerned about the well being of their Orcas, nor of their trainers. In the documentary Blackfish, SeaWorld continues to fight the ban keeping their
trainers out of the water with their Orcas put in place by the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (7).
It makes we wonder how SeaWorld, a company supposedly founded with the goals
of educating the public, and rehabilitating sea animals, can continue to
disregard the safety of their employees.
It also makes me wonder how their other animals are kept if the Orcas
are treated so poorly. I understand that
there are cost restraints on how well the Orcas tank can be constructed, but I
think that if could be improved. I also
think that if the Orcas state of living is so low that they should be released
back into the wild, or be kept in larger open ocean pens. Learning more about this topic has definitely
made me less willing to go to SeaWorld. While we do not definitively know whether the
Orcas involved in these attacks are acting out maliciously, I think we should
consider these attacks as warnings.
1. Mabel, J. (2010, Dec. 08). Tlingit
basket with orca motif c. 1900. Retrieved
from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tlingit_basket_with_orca_motif_c._1900_02.jpg.
2. Balcomb, K.C., Ellis, G.M, and Ford, J.K.B. (1994). Killer
Whales. Seattle, Wa: University of Washington Press.
3. Davis, Brock. (n.d.) Cucumber Killer Whale. Retrieved
from http://www.itistheworldthatmadeyousmall.com/46341/656228/projects/cucumber-killer-whale.
4. Haida. (2013). In Britannica Online
Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/251732/Haida
5. Shearar,
Cheryl. (2000). Understanding Northwest Coast Art. Seattle,
Wa: University of Washington Press.
6. Internet Movie Database.
(n.d.) Orca (1977). Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076504/
7. Oteyza, M. (producer), & Cowperthwaite, G.
(Director). (2013). Blackfish
[Motion Picture]. United States:
Dogwoof films.
8. PETA. (2010).
Aquariums and Marine Parks. Retrieved from http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/aquariums-and-marine-parks.aspx.
9. Tenofsky, R.
(2010, July 8). SeaWorld’s Inbreeding Program. Retrieved from http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/2013/07/08/seaworlds-inbreeding-program/.
10. Swanton, J.
(1904). Origin of The Killer Whale. Retrieved
from http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/nw/tmt/tmt008.htm.
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