A second totem pole that has stood outside the Royal BC Museum for decades has come down to be returned to the Haida Nation.
A traditional blessing was held Wednesday morning in Thunderbird Park to bless the Haida pole, which was carved by Mungo Martin in 1955. The totem holds great meaning for the Haida community.
“The totem pole is a mortuary pole and it held the remains of an eagle woman who was killed off of Vancouver Island and her family took her back home. She was a high ranking woman and they put her remains in the mortuary pole,” Lucy Bell, head of Indigenous Collections and Repatriation at the Royal BC Museum, said.
The interior of the replica pole was starting rot so once it is returned to Mungo Martin’s family in Fort Rupert where it will likely be used as a reference for local carvers.
“It’s good for us as Haida people to finally bring our treasures home so they can rest, where they were meant to be,” Allan Davidson hereditary Chief of the St’langng Laanaas First Nation on Haida Gwaii.
CHEK News
