ASMR | Exploring The Paranormal: Bakwas

Hi sweets💓 Welcome back to another episode of exploring the paranormal! Today we're diving into Indigenous cosmology and taking a look at a spirit called Bakwas. I really hope you like this video, and if you have any suggestions please lmk in the comments!

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Content

Bakwas is a supernatural spirit of the Kwakwaka’wakw people of coastal British Columbia. His name translates to “man-of-the-ground embodiment”, and was nicknamed the “wild man of the woods”. If a human finds themselves lost in the woods, or travelling in a canoe, they may come across a bakwas. The creature will offer what appears to be dried salmon, but is actually rotten wood, maggots, snakes or lizards. If the presented food is eaten, the person immediately turns into a ghost and becomes a member of the Bakwas entourage, living in the ghost world forever. Bakwas sometimes leaves the forest to explore isolated beaches and dig for his favourite foods, cockles and shellfish. He is sometimes referred to as “the cockle hunter”, “chief of the ghosts”, or “hunter of the night”. Bakwas is a shy creature and in one sense afraid of humans, he often holds his forearm up to hide his masked face from observers.

The Bakwas is about half the size of a grown man, he has a hooked nose that curves to touch the open lip of a usually open mouth and a hairy, green body. He appears as a gaunt, haggard wild man, dressed in raged garments with long disheveled hair.

Some legends state that Bakwas themselves once drowned. Others say that the first Bakwas was a strong warrior who walked every morning to a mountain stream to bathe - but one day couldn’t find his way home. Lost in the woods, he became a ‘wild man’.

In traditional Indigenous cosmology Baakwas is very clearly a spirit. He is the subject of carved shamanic masks and appears during rituals, especially the traditional winter dance. However, he is now sometimes also identified with Bigfoot or Sasquatch and thus assumed to be a cryptid, an as yet unidentified living being.

In acknowledgement of the Bakwas legend, many tribes carve detailed Bakwas masks. They feature the spirit’s arching eyebrows, round eyes and long nose. Often, these are worn for ceremonial dances during which the dancer holds his hands in front of his face, symbolizing the spirit’s shy nature.


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