I saw this on Yahoo, and thought I would share it with everyone. It is kind of interesting:

Could you please tell me what are the creatures in the boat on the twenty dollar Canadian bill. I have looked all over and haven't been able to find out what they are.

Interesting question. If you don't live in Canada — or if you're really poor — you can see what a Canadian $20 bill looks like by clicking here . Beautiful, eh?

The image in question is on the back of the $20 bill. It comes from a bronze sculpture by Bill Reid that sits at the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C. (There is a second casting at the Vancouver airport.) This sculpture is called "The Spirit of Haida Gwaii," and was inspired by the legends of the Haida people, one of Canada's First Nations. The Haida were/are residents of what are now called the Queen Charlotte Islands, off the coast of British Columbia.

Reid's sculpture was commissioned in 1985 and the final product was delivered in 1991. It depicts a Haida canoe carrying 13 figures (not all of them are clearly visible on the $20 bill):

The Raven - The trickster in Haida legend.
The Mouse Woman - The guide between the human world and the spirit world.
The Grizzly Bear
The Bear Mother - The human wife of the Grizzly Bear, sometimes known as the Woman Who Married the Bear; a key figure in many First Nations' mythologies.
The Two Cubs - Reid calls them the Good Bear and the Bad Bear; they are the children of the Grizzly Bear and the Bear Mother.
The Beaver - The Raven's uncle, he once hoarded all the fresh water and fish in the world.
The Dogfish Woman - Part human, part shark. (But not part dog?)
The Eagle - Along with the Raven, represents the "yin" and "yang" of the Haida.
The Frog
The Wolf
The Ancient Reluctant Conscript - A human paddler.
Kilstlaai - The human chief.
As the Canadian Embassy points out:

The canoe contains both Raven and Eagle, women and men, a rich man and a poorer man, and animals as well as human beings. Is it fair, then, to see in it an image not only of one culture but of the entire family of living things? Not all is peace and contentment in this crowded boat. There are nervous faces and tempers running high. But whatever their differences, they are paddling together, in one boat, headed in one direction. Wherever their journey takes them, let us wish them luck.
By the way, I'm a big fan of this sculpture, so if you have any of those pocket-sized portraits — they usually have a number 20 on them somewhere — please feel free to contribute them to my collection.

[ message was edited on: 2005/03/21 ]