Reconciliation, in the symbols of a totem pole

Pole at Vancouver university tells story of Canada’s residential school history

A Reconciliation totem pole was recently erected on the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus in the traditional Haida manner — everyone in the community pulling up the 17-metre high pole to a standing position facing north.

Haida poles are read from the bottom up. This pole, by master Haida carver James Hart, tells the story of Canada’s residential school history, during which150,000 indigenous children were taken from their families and put into government-funded, church-run schools from the mid-1880s to 1996.

This pole represents three phases — before residential schools, when the schools operated and afterwards, or the future.

Here is the meaning of the elements of the pole: 1. Salmon surrounds the very base of the pole, symbolizing life. The pole was carved out of an 800year-old red cedar tree from Haida Gwaii on B.C.’s northern coast. 2. Between the legs of the bear mother is a shaman, who stands on top of a salmon house and performs a ceremony to make sure the children come back. 3. The bear mother is the largest figure in this bottom half of the pole. She is holding her two bear cubs and a raven sits nestled on her head, watching. 4. A school sits on top of the raven.

It is a depiction of the Coqualeetza Indian Residential School that Hart’s father attended.

The institutions were created to school the Indian out of the child and assimilate them to colonial culture. 5. Above the school are children linked together.

They are wearing school-issued uniforms. There are also copper nails throughout the pole, symbolizing the more than 4,000 children who died at the schools. 6. On top of the children are four spirit animals: A killer whale, representing water; a bear, representing the land; an eagle, representing air; and a thunderbird, signifying the supernatural.

Each symbolizes the culture and world the indigenous children come from. 7. This figure represents the family unit — the father, mother and child, dressed in traditional attire — signifying a gaining of strength and a renewed spirit to carry on. 8. A canoe and a longboat travel forward, together, respectfully honouring each other’s differences.

This represents indigenous people in Canada moving forward, together with nonindigenous governments toward a future of understanding. 9. The eagle at the top of the Reconciliation Pole is a symbol of strength and power and it speaks to the future.

The eagle is about to take flight.

DARRYL DYCK PHOTOS/THE CANADIAN PRESS Residential school survivor Pauline Jones, 73, stops to touch the Reconciliation Pole before its raising at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

The 17-metre red cedar pole tells the story of the time before, during and after the Indian residential school system.

Copper nails representing indigenous children who died in Canada’s residential schools were hammered into the pole by survivors and others.