© Costume Society of America 2013 DOI 10.1179/0361211213Z.00000000016 153 Stella Blum Grant Report Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations’ Huulthin (Shawls): Historical and Contemporary Practices Denise Nicole Green Denise Nicole Green is a Vanier Scholar and Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Her dissertation examines Nuu-chah-nulth textiles, clothing, and regalia as animate materials that shape cultural knowledge on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Huulthin (shawls) play an important role in Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations’ oral histories, social organiza- tion, and ceremonial life. Drawing upon archival, material, museum, and ethnographic data, this research explores changes in huulthin as emblematic of broader social, economic, and spiritual transfor- mations. Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations’ huulthin do not exist in a vacuum—they are intimate posses- sions, collectively produced and displayed. Huulthin are a material iteration of deep histories, spiritual beliefs, social relationships, and trade networks. In the last 240 years, colonial encounters, capitalist economies (fueling rampant resource extraction and industrialization), settlement, and Canada’s aggressive assimilationist agenda have brought dramatic change to the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Huulthin are a material, symbolic, spiritual, and embodied interface: between individuals and tribal communities, physical and spiritual worlds, knowledge and display, and perhaps most importantly, between history and a rapidly changing world. Keywords ceremonial regalia, Nuu-chah-nulth, colonialism, fashion, Northwest Coast Native Americans