Victor Oriecuia

Mora', The making of Hellbound with the Haliburton Witch

It was April 29, 2009, at 3:13 am when it happened - I was spending a few days hiking with friends near Halliburton, Ontario. After a long day of hiking, I ended the night by the campfire before heading back to my remote cabin, where I fell asleep with the lights on. It was shortly after when I opened my eyes and felt absolute panic; I realized I was paralyzed by something evil lying next to me in bed. I couldn’t turn my head, but in my peripheral vision, I caught a black haired, pale faced female creature emitting crackling and high frequency snapping noises from her distorted mouth. I was being attacked by a malevolent spirit. In absolute horror, I tried to move, but my body was unresponsive. For a brief moment, I was able to sit up and roll off the bed, but the spirit pulled me back and held me firm on the mattress. Eventually I regained some mobility and removed myself from the bed; however the spirit reacted and rushed to the perimeter of the bed to block my escape. With a screaming lunge towards the witch, I attempted to push her back, and it was only then that she disappeared into the shadows.
Free from the witch’s grasp, I dove back into my bed with my heart pounding, sensing that something was still hovering around me. The spirit receded to a corner of the ceiling and transformed into flowing black linen that appeared to wash over my room. This evil veil lingered for hours.
After speaking to my parents about the event, I was told that my grandfather and many others shared this experience in the remote mountainous villages along the Natisone Valleys in north-eastern Italy. They too witnessed and suffered night attacks by a witch, referred to by the locals in their regional dialect as Mora’. My mother recounted tales of Mora’, but thought that her father was merely joking when he spoke of witch sightings, in an attempt to scare the young children. Were these visions a result of sleep paralysis (old hag syndrome), fatigue, or stress? You can label these sighting with scientific theories, but there’s no denying the senses and terror of being confined with evil.
Sightings of Mora’ is not localized to my family’s village in Rodda Alta, but the experiences have been documented and reported for centuries across Europe and Asia. The following countries have documented their version of the night witch, but with slight etymological variations: German (mar/mare, nachtmahr), Czech (muera), Polish (zmora), Serbian (mora), Russian (kikimora), Romanian (moroi), Old English (maere), Old Norse (mara), Old Irish (mar/more). Hence, the true meaning of night’mare’ is to be visited by a demon during the night.
I began sculpting this block of black marble in October 2013, but due to circumstances beyond my control, it took me nearly two years to finalize this work. This piece represents my interpretation of the flowing black linen that covered and concealed my nocturnal visitor. My inspiration to create this sculpture was not the witch specifically, but rather my attempt to create a tangible reminder to face your fears head-on, and use that primitive raw emotion to compel you to a positive path.

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