“Up Came the Sun and Drank the Dew” – Emily Carr

Several weekends ago I had a marvellous Vagabond Adventure on Vancouver Island. On the island for a work trip, I awakened on the Sunday to a crystal clear, sunny morning that promised adventure. Like Emily Carr in her quote above, it felt as if the sun HAD drank the dew! And like Emily, I share a gravitational pull to the stunning Northwest Coast story poles called totems. Knowing that their strength, beauty, mystery and bright colours draw me in but having just an elementary understanding of their “why”, I stopped at Victoria’s book Mecca, Munro’s Books, to learn more.

There I picked up a fantastic read called Looking at Totem Poles by Hilary Stewart. In the forward, Norman Tait, Nisga’a carver writes:

“Totem poles are all about cultural identity. They are a way of native people saying, ‘We’re here. We’re still here and our culture is still here.’ I’m glad when I carve a pole because I want people to know that we still carve totem poles and stories that go with the poles.”

Tait goes on to say “You treat a totem pole with respect, just like a person, because in our culture that’s what it is. A pole is just another person that is born into the family, except he is the storyteller. So it should be treated with respect and honour.”

Reading this, suddenly I knew what drew me to the many totem poles I have encountered since moving to BC. They are standing storytellers! So on this Sunday, my drive took me through Duncan, BC which is known as “The City of the Totems.” On drives up the Malahat and the TransCanada from Victoria to Nanaimo and often on to Tofino, I have passed through Duncan many times but never had the opportunity or time to stop and take their Totem Tour. On this sunny Sunday I had just enough time to take this fantastic walking tour around the town and you can see one of the many stunning totems above that I found on my journey.

This totem is called Thunderbird with Dzunuk’wa. As you can see, I could only capture part of the story with my lens. This is a replica of a memorial pole first carved by Willie Seaweed in the Yalis cemetery in Alert Bay. This colourful pole was carved by Ned Matilpi from the Ma’amtagila Band near Sayward. Ned started carving when he was just sixteen and this was his first solo pole as a carver. It depicts the Thunderbird at the top, which is a source of mythological and supernatural powers, coupled with the Dzunuk’wa or “Wild Woman” with her arms outstretched in mourning. Those powerful arms just drew me in!

If you would like to learn more about totem poles, I highly recommend Hilary Stewart’s book “Looking At Totems” published through Douglas and McIntyre. I’ve just started my journey of understanding and this will be my first of many totem stories as I criss-cross beautiful BC. I would also highly recommend Duncan’s Totem Tour. Please read more about Duncan here and here.

I managed to take a few more photos on my tour. If you would like to see more, please visit me over at my photo website here. As always, thanks so much for accompanying me on my Vagabond Adventures!