Governments failing to step up, say organizers of totem project
Raise the Pole campaign aims to raise awareness of Indigenous languages at risk
The organizers of a totem-pole carving project to mark the UN International Year of Indigenous Languages this year say they are frustrated by a lack of government funding.
The plan is to carve an 800-year-old cedar tree in Port Alberni felled by wind about 60 years ago into a totem pole that will represent the importance of language in Indigenous cultures. But funding has run out, putting the project in jeopardy.
The First Nations Education Foundation, a Vancouver-based non-profit that works with First Nation governments to develop Indigenous language revitalization programs, commissioned the pole and hopes to raise it at the University of Victoria by the end of November.
To do so, they say they’ll need to raise between $30,000 to $50,000 in the next few weeks to meet deadlines for structural engineering work on the installation site and to continue paying the carver.
To date, the foundation has raised about $130,000 in cash and in-kind support.
Scott Jeary, the foundation’s executive director, said the money has mostly come from corporate donations.
The total budget for the project is about $400,000, which will pay for transportation of the pole from Port Alberni to Victoria, engineering work to prepare the installation site, paying the carver and holding a pole-raising ceremony.
The foundation has launched a “Raise the Pole” campaign asking Canadians to support the project.
Les Doiron, CEO of the foundation, said the project is about reconciliation and revitalizing Indigenous languages that are at risk of being lost as remaining fluent speakers age.
“Every opportunity to squish the language and culture was taken by Canada. Now this is the greatest opportunity ever to be able to reconcile — to bring awareness to languages around the world,” Doiron said.
He said the Language Revitalization Pole doesn’t qualify for any of the provincial government’s $50 million earmarked for revitalizing Indigenous languages.
“It’s frustrating to me. Governments should be stepping up,” he said.
The First Peoples’ Cultural Council, a First Nations-run Crown corporation based in Brentwood Bay, is responsible for allocating the provincial language funding. The council said it prioritizes projects that document Indigenous languages and create new fluent speakers.
Jeary, however, believes the totem pole will generate awareness of Indigenous languages at risk.
“It’s difficult to describe the deep meaning of what a pole is to a community. It will carry the story to anybody that takes a look at it,” he said.
The United Nations named 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages to preserve and promote languages at risk.
There are approximately 61 Indigenous languages in Canada, with 34 in B.C. alone, according to a 2018 report from the First Peoples’ Cultural Council. Only about three per cent of First Nations people in the province identify as fluent speakers and more than half of those speakers are 65 or older.
Nuu-chah-nulth master carver Tim Paul, who is creating the totem pole, is a survivor of a residential school. Paul said he has the language abilities of an 11-year-old in his mother tongue, because he and his brother asked their mother not to speak their language to them when they returned from the school.
“My mum’s reaction is: ‘That’s the sorriest thing I ever did. I never should have listened to you,’ ” Paul said.
Paul said he designed the pole to represent the 10 relatives of the Nuu-chah-nulth people — the sky, sun, moon, stars, lakes, rivers, sea, land, mountains and wind. He said nature is the first teacher of the Nuu-chah-nulth people.
“What we need to do today is save what we have left. A lot has been lost. A lot has been taken away as well,” Paul said.
“The language is the biggest part of who we are.”
The foundation selected UVic as the location for the pole because the university has a long record of language revitalization work and Indigenous programming, and because the totem pole will be easily available to the public.
Jeary noted it will be a huge engineering job to raise the 20-metre pole, requiring extensive planning, which is why the foundation needs to raise money quickly to ensure the pole goes up during the UN’s year of Indigenous languages.
“That’s the best opportunity to amplify the message,” he said.