 who was a human who bore bear children. Bear are the ravens, key characters in Haida mythology, believed to have coaxed the first humans to emerge from a clamshell in the Pacific Sea. Nicola also works in the museum's reparations office, which undertakes the dogged task of negotiating the return of ceremonial items, such as poles and carved bentwood boxes, which stored objects of Haida wealth. There is a Haida pole in your British museum that we would like to have, she says, pointedly raising an eyebrow.