DiscoverTotems

Yuquot "where the wind blows in all directions" is considered the "birthplace" of British Columbia,  is the site of first contact when in March, 1778, Captain James Cook became the fist European to set foot on British Columbian soil and make contact with the First Nations people who had been residing in Nookta Sound for over 4,000 years. This morning, we're heading there by boat to photograph some fallen totem poles, a church with poles inside  and visit the historic site. 

Yuquot is located off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuquot,_British_Columbia

We're planning another road trip down to the states this weekend in search of a piece of Seattle History the "Stolen Totem Pole" as it' often referred is located in Seattle's Pioneer Square and definitely on our must-see list for this tour.  I vaguely remembered hearing a 1998 news story about an arsonist seriously damaging a  totem pole in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle. In the aftermath the remaining pieces were returned to the Tlingit band from whom it was originally stolen, who graciously carved a new one and gave it to Seattle (after finally getting paid for the original).  This weekend, we're travelling down to Seattle to photograph, visit the pole in person, and add it to the site's catalog. There's a well documented back story about this pole so it holds an interesting place in Seattle's history - with vintage postcards and tons of tourism web sites including pictures of this often photographed pole.

The back story on the "Stolen" aspect of the original 60 foot pole which  first erected in Seattle's Pioneer Square on October 18, 1899 comes from the fact that the pole  had been stolen from a Tlingit village several weeks before and was presented to the City of Seattle by a group of Seattle prominent citizens that had taken the totem.  Surprisingly even back then there were watch dogs and reporter that made allegations. At the the time. a local Attorney,  William H. Thompson responded to allegations by saying: "The village has long since been deserted ... Here the totem will voice the natives' deeds with surer speech than if lying prone on moss and fern on the shore of Tongass Island" (Dorpat).  The response must have raised the ire of many as the intent of all poles is that they remain in place once they have fallen and return to the earth, just a tree would in the forest.

Video tour of 3 Totem Poles carved by Tony Paul

Time Warp: Contemporary Textiles of the Northwest Coast
July 16, 2010 - January 16, 2011

Time Warp is the first major exhibition to feature the contemporary practice of textile and fibre art on the Northwest Coast. Historically, textiles were marginalized because they were, and still are, considered to be "women's work" and purely decorative. Time Warp challenges this gender bias, and explores the growing profile of textiles as a major Northwest Coast art form.

The exhibition includes Coast Salish weavings, Raven's Tail and Naaxiin style (Chilkat) robes, tunics and capes, as well as cedar bark and spruce root clothing and accessories.

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Time Warp is co-curated by:

Evelyn Vanderhoop - artist and guest curator

Dr. Martine Reid - consulting curator, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art

Powwow Pictures: Student art created in the style of Plains Cree artist George Littlechild - Gibsons Public Art Gallery, Gower Point Rd March 25-April 22, 2010  - Paintings from Langdale, Cedar Grove, Roberts Creek, NDVR and Sechelt Elementary Schools as the result of a series of hands-on guided workshops with the artist.

Sechelt (shishálh) First Nations owned and operated cultural interpretative tour company, (with a emphasis on education in First Nations history, arts, ecological practices, outdoor adventure and safety).  Talaysay Tours provides guided kayak tours, lessons, rentals, nature walks, museum tours, community-totem pole walks, longhouse tours, events, carving demonstrations, and drumming and singing.

http://talaysay.com/

Darryl's Coffee and Native Art Shop (945 Davie Street), which frequently serves oven-baked bannock, is a great small shop with exceptional deals on guaranteed genuine Native Art. Darryl deals directly with the artists and returns a greater portion of the profits to them than most galleries. And most items are priced much lower than the average gallery or shop.

http://www.straight.com/article-213202/aboriginal-cuisine-heats

http://www.bcpassport.com/vancouver-adventure/indoor-adventure/first-nat...

The Spirit Wrestler Gallery is a leading contemporary fine art gallery representing master Inuit, Northwest Coast and Maori artists. The gallery focuses on exhibitions that showcase contemporary directions in aboriginal art, including cross-cultural communication, the use of new materials (such as glass and metal), and modern interpretations of shamanism, environmental concerns, and other issues pertaining to the changing world.

http://www.spiritwrestler.com

Check out the Designer/Artist's Gallery Site at  http://www.edzerzagallery.com

Uniforms were designed in collaboration with Asics the Dutch team sponsor and Vancouver-based First Nation's Artist Alano Edzerza found his calling as an artist before he was a teenager, and received his first award for sculpture at the age of 13. Alano started learning about Northwest Coast art through his family, often going with his mother Lynda to her job at the Royal BC Museum. Over the few years that followed, Alano has emerged as one of the area’s leading contemporary artists / entrepreneurs.

In 2008, Alano spotted an opportunity to open his own gallery in Vancouver, and that August, Alano celebrated the grand opening of Edzerza Gallery with a show titled “Black Ice”. This event featured grayscale works of art by Alano and other talented Northwest Coast artists. Over the past two years, Alano has been working with art consultants, engineers and designers to accomplish some large-scale installations throughout Vancouver and Edmonton.

He has created custom-designed large scale works in steel and glass for places like Sonora Fishing Lodge on Vancouver Island as well as creating many unique pieces for clients’ homes. Last year, Alano created 10 monumental glass panels for a Vancouver Coastal Health office and more recently provided Vancouver’s GM Place with an eight foot glass Orca mural as a part of their preparation for the Olympics and beyond. This year, Alano was selected to participate in the international traveling exhibition “Challenging Traditions”. Currently, Alano has two works of art in the exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Ontario. The exhibition will be traveling to Switzerland in 2010 before returning to UBC’s Museum of Anthropology in 2011.
In 2009, Alano was honored with the prestigious BC Aboriginal Business Award for Male Entrepreneur as well as winning First and Second Place prizes for his glass sculpture at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market in Phoenix, Arizona.

Check out the Designer/Artist's Gallery Site at  http://www.edzerzagallery.com

The Bronze medal winning Russian ice dancers who performed their routine dressed as faux Australian aboriginals are said to have infuriated B.C. natives. They came in third after Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and a U.S. pair, despite most TV commentators' critiques of the Russians' "cartoonish" costumes and the "ludicrous" imitation of tribal drums.

For their Vancouver 2010 Olympic Ice Dancing performances, Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin toned down the brown body paint and adjusted their fake foliage, but according to an article published today in the Province , B.C. First Nations consider the revised costumes disrespectful.  During their routine here, the pair toned down the fake brown body colour and streaks of paint, and the faux foliage stuffed into their loincloths seemed to feature West Coast ferns rather than Australian gum.

Even though the pair had been criticized at the recent European championships where they debuted the costumes, they still brought the outfits to the Olympics where similiar reactions occured.  Below is a YouTube video clip of the 'untoned-down' version of the costumes.

The paird did  meet prior to their Olympic performance last Friday with Four Host First Nations CEO Tewanee Joseph to discuss their routine and issued a joint statement with the Russian Skating Federation emphasizing mutual "honour and respect." This seeminmgly was the impetus for the slight changes to their costumes - which still seemed bizarrely out of place at the Olympics and left many shaking their heads. 

The Russians were given valuable Salish woven blankets, which they draped over themselves while waiting for the judges' verdict Sunday, apparently a last ditch effort to get them to cover themselves with something slightly more appropriate.