Latest news with #totempoles
CBC
13-08-2025
- General
- CBC
Search for B.C.'s Best Symbol: Championship final — Totem Poles vs. Orcas
Social Sharing Symbols don't change all that much — but our connection to them does. One hundred years ago, British Columbia was a land of mountains and trees, salmon and bears, Ogopogos and Okanagan fruit, an Indigenous past with a diverse array of First Nations histories, and a settler present spurred by the gold rush and railways. Then, the orca was seen by many as a criminal of the waters that competed with fishermen for valuable resources. Totem poles were famous pieces of art, but often taken from First Nations whose lands were dispossessed, put in far-off museums or tourist attractions as "ethnographic curios," as one Musqueam art curator put it. A century later, orcas and totem poles are the two finalists in the Search For B.C.'s Best Symbol, our fun summer competition to unofficially find out what best represents this province. It's reflective of more than 400,000 votes that have eliminated 62 of the 64 original entries in our competition. It's also reflective of how British Columbia has changed. "Totems symbolize, I think, what's the best and the worst of British Columbia history sort of all wrapped in that one symbol," said John Lutz, a University of Victoria historian who wrote the chapter on totem poles in the book Symbols of Canada. Why totem poles are such iconic B.C. symbols 14 days ago "Our relationship to iconic species like orcas is really not extraction. It's about approaching and experiencing nature in a very different way," said Jason Colby, a UVic historian who wrote Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator. Two iconic symbols of this province — which one will British Columbians vote as the best? Symbols of the past, stories of the future Talk to people who directly engage with totem poles or orcas on a regular basis, and you'll get all sorts of answers why they make for an interesting symbol. On Saturna Island, dozens of volunteers are involved with the Southern Gulf Islands Whale Sighting Network, an organization that monitors and provides data to the federal government about the movements of orcas, in hopes of better preserving their habitat. WATCH | What orcas mean to B.C.: How orcas became such a big symbol of British Columbia 16 days ago "If we can learn to save the orcas, if we can learn to understand the orcas, we can learn to understand many other things in this province," said Richard Blagborne, a volunteer who helped organize a symposium last decade on Moby Doll — an orca captured off the Saturna coast in 1964 whose plight helped changed the perception of the cetacean. "The more we learned, the more we started to love them. And I think that's a positive indication about British Columbians." 'Namgis and Squamish master carver Xwalacktun, who has created more than 30 totem poles in his career, is more circumspect when asked if the totem should be B.C.'s best symbol. "If we were to use totem poles, the reason is to represent a story, and that story is the new beginning of where we want to go with this symbol of British Columbia," he said. "You always can't forget what's happened in the past. So we remember what happened in the past, but we continue on moving forward." The past and present both inform what symbols matter most to British Columbians. But the one known in the future as the province's best — at least, according to a highly scientific series of online votes — is now up to you. Voting closes at 10 p.m. PT Wednesday, and we'll reveal the winner Friday morning on The Early Edition. Until then, may the best symbol win.
Globe and Mail
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Mark Carney's 'build, baby, build' aspirations face a challenge from Indigenous leaders
The Grand Hall of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., can make you feel small. It's a soaring, glass-walled space that stretches across the belly of the museum, facing the Ottawa River and Parliament Hill on the opposite shore. The Grand Hall is set up like a Pacific Northwest coastal village from the 19th century, with the undulating shape of the massive space emulating a shoreline. A boardwalk runs along the 'waterfront,' before the facades of houses from six different First Nations along the coast of British Columbia, from the Coast Salish in the south to the Haida and North Coast communities further up. But what gives the space much of its arresting drama are the monumental totem poles that spike into the air throughout the hall. These imposing sentries − the tallest are more than four storeys high − are history carved in red cedar, recording the lineage of the chief or family that owned each one. On Thursday, Indigenous leaders met among them with Prime Minister Mark Carney to debate his plans to build big things fast in Canada. To Andrew Robinson, attending the meeting as chief executive officer of the Nisga'a Lisims Government, the setting was perfect, because it felt like the past was watching. 'They aren't actually just symbols of art, they're actual memorial markers, like headstones,' he said of the poles, noting that most people don't understand that. 'It's funny − it's not even funny, it's fitting − that we're sitting here with the Prime Minister of the day and all this stuff, being able to move forward in a good way while our ancestors and our past sits and looks at us,' Mr. Robinson added. 'Can you imagine how far we've come as people? As Canada?' Up to this point, everything in Mr. Carney's leadership of the country has seemed to gallop along on greased rails. Donald Trump's desire to gobble up Canada created the perfect conditions for the former central banker's leadership run and a seemingly impossible bounce-back for the Liberals. Then, anxiety about how to survive the American economic vandalism made for an unusually united and motivated Canadian public: Everyone sort of nodded together in mute worry, agreeing that the man with the tidy haircut should be allowed to fix this however he saw fit. What Mr. Carney has been rolling in since January, in other words, is permission, but this week he suddenly faced a group of leaders who were not inclined to write him a blank cheque for more. Explainer: Why First Nations are clashing with Ontario and Ottawa over bills aimed at speeding up megaprojects Some Indigenous communities have expressed deep concerns that Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act, was rammed through Parliament too quickly or offers too much latitude for the federal government to bypass certain conditions if a project is deemed to be in the national interest. Nine First Nations from Ontario have taken the government to court over the matter. 'Our rights can't take a back seat in terms of how decisions are made,' said Terry Teegee, regional chief of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, in a press conference the day before the summit. He added, 'Free, prior and informed consent cannot be an afterthought.' On Thursday, just before Mr. Carney headed down to the Grand Hall to begin the summit, he scrummed with reporters briefly on a landing above. In contrast to the 'build, baby, build' urgency in which the Prime Minister has painted his national aspirations for months, here he took pains to underline that nothing is decided yet, no stone is rolling inexorably down a hill, and he had come to listen. Soon after he started speaking, Mr. Carney was drowned out by a mic check; a few minutes later, the tourism-ad view of Parliament Hill behind him dissolved in sudden curtains of rain. The universe's department of dramatic symbolism seemed to be drunk on its own power. Once the meeting got going, at the tables arrayed between the big houses and towering poles on the ground level, Mr. Carney and his ministers were seated near - but very specifically not at − the front of the room. After a prayer by an elder, the Prime Minister opened the meeting with a brief speech, ad-libbing away from his prepared remarks to again underline his assignment. 'I'm going to say a few words, and then I'm going to listen, listen for the day,' he said, adding, 'We are starting as we mean to go forward, by listening, engaging, working together.' No one else would know much of what the Prime Minister heard from Indigenous leaders, because right after his opening remarks, staff from his office hustled reporters out and the rest of the meeting was private. Chiefs criticize Indigenous advisory council for Bill C-5 projects after meeting with Carney Even still, it was tough to miss the fact that at no point were the two sides talking about the same things or even speaking the same language. The Prime Minister, as he has for months, talked about a unified and more robust Canadian economy that can at least partly compensate for the Trump blast radius, diversifying international trading partners and building big projects that will fundamentally alter and improve the fortunes of this country. Indigenous leaders, on the other hand, talked about sovereign rights that they are not willing to be rolled on, fighting for constituencies that fly and swim and sway in the winds, thinking seven generations into the future. And then there are the basic services like roads and schools and water that they feel need to be better tended to before they'll be interested in talking about what the government wants. 'I can't stress that enough,' Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, told reporters on the sweltering pavement outside the museum, after the media had been ushered out. 'I don't want my little grandchildren someday, your little grandchildren, having these same discussions.' Permission sometimes requires a lot more than simply listening.
CTV News
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Vancouver artist behind Google Doodle for National Indigenous Peoples Day
The Google Doodle for June 21 commemorating National Indigenous Peoples Day was created by Vancouver-based Tahltan artist Alano Edzerza. If you open Google on Saturday, art by a Vancouverite will show up on the homepage. The Google Doodle for June 21 commemorating National Indigenous Peoples Day was created by Vancouver-based Tahltan artist Alano Edzerza. Titled 'Celebrating Totem Poles,' the graphic depicts wooden animals shaped like the letters in Google—a frog, wolf, raven, eagle, bear, whale and thunderbird. Edzerza's art has been displayed in galleries around the world, and he even designed gear for Dutch athletes during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Now, his work will be seen by anyone in Canada who makes a Google search. 'More than artwork, totem poles are deeply symbolic narratives carved into wood. They tell stories, commemorate events, or represent a family's lineage and crests. Many of these crests feature animals that represent kinship, identity and family history,' reads the webpage about the doodle. 'Colonization threatened totem poles with bans on various cultural practices, like the Potlatch, a ceremony where poles are raised. Today, beautiful totem poles are symbols of survival and resistance to cultural encroachment.' Doodles are special Google logos that mark holidays or commemorate important people. Famous British Columbians who have been featured in Google Doodles include Terry Fox and Harry Jerome.
