Category: Canada

Travel Your Way

Rhinocarhire have a photography travel competition running at the moment which closes on 31st October, so hurry if you want to join in! You don’t have to be nominated to join in, but you do need to nominate five other bloggers on your entry.

“Our competition is based around modes of transport and how you travel, whether by road, air, rail or sea, we want you to put your creative thinking hats on and show us your best snaps of each (or as many as you wish) types of transport you’ve encountered. Whether it’s from a recent trip or one from the past, we just want to see how you travel.” Continue reading Travel Your Way

A leisurely drive up the Sunshine Coast

The last of my travels in British Columbia: this is the route up the Sunshine Coast on the west coast of the mainland, north of Vancouver, which we took to reach Vancouver Island in 2005. It is a truly lovely drive along with a couple of short ferry rides across the fjords along this spectacular coastline. We were fortunate to be able to buy a CirclePac ticket from BC Ferries which gave us discounted fares on the routes up the coast and to and from the island. I believe we also got discounted fares travelling to the smaller islands such as Hornby, Denman and Cormorant Island (Alert Bay). Sadly this ticket was discontinued in 2011. However, it is still a route I recommend for the scenery alone. Continue reading A leisurely drive up the Sunshine Coast

Alert Bay V: The World’s Tallest Totem Pole

world's largest totem poleThe World’s tallest totem pole is located at the northern end of Cormorant Island next to the Big House. This pole stands 173 feet tall and unlike most totem poles which are specific to one family the figures on this pole represent some of the tribes of the Kwakwaka’wakw. From the top down are the following figures:

  • Sun Man: crest of the Quatsino tribes
  • Kolus: crest of the Kwagu
  • Whale: crest of the Gwa’sala-‘Nak’waxda’xw
  • Old Man: crest of Turnour Island
  • Wolf: crest of the Dzawada’enux
  • Thunderbird: ‘Namgis tribe
  • Dzunukwa: crest of the Mamalilikala
  • Bear holding a salmon, a raven and a Dzunukwa holding a copper. Continue reading Alert Bay V: The World’s Tallest Totem Pole

Alert Bay IV: U’mista Cultural Centre

The Meaning of U’mista

In earlier days people were sometimes taken captive by raiding parties. When they returned home, either through payment of a ransom or by a retaliatory raid, they are said to have “u’mista”. The return of treasures from distant museums is a form of u’mista.

U’mista Cultural Centre is one of the longest-operating and most successful First Nations cultural facilities in BC, founded in 1980 as a ground breaking project and houses one of the finest collections of elaborately carved masks, depicting the Potlatch Ceremony of the Kwakwaka’wakw. It is now a modern museum and education centre in Alert Bay with an extensive art gallery.

The Potlatch Ceremony

Was a gathering which served to validate important events such as the naming of children, marriage, death and the exchanging of rights and privileges. (A Copper documented important events and transactions engaged in during the life of its owner and symbolised wealth. It increased in value every time it changed hands).

The ceremony was first outlawed in Canada between 1885 and 1951.  The masks and other regalia that you see in the cultural centre were all confiscated after an illegal potlatch in 1921.  After the ban was lifted, the Kwakwaka’wakw people fought for decades for the return of their sacred regalia that had ended up in museum and private collections around the world.

The design on the front of the centre is based on ‘Namgis Chief Tlakwudlas’ Big House c 1873 and depicts a Thunderbird and a Killer Whale.