"This is a canoe box. It’s made of yellow cedar, the lid is red cedar, the toggle is yellow cedar and then the string that holds is woven cedar bark. This type of box is shaped  in this way because it would fit in the bow of the canoe, and the fisherman or the sea hunter would keep his tackle or his spearpoints in this box. It’s shaped like this so it would sit in the bow of the canoe and not fall over when they were going through the water chasing whatever they hoped to be catching. The design is the killer whale on the front and the back, and on the side is the tail of the killer whale."

Push play in the video above to hear David's description of the piece.