Alert Bay, British Columbia, Canada
The Sea Bird coursed along extensive Vancouver Island’s northeastern shore to horseshoe-shaped Cormorant Island. Here we docked at Alert Bay, a jewel of native Pacific Northwest heritage where the Nimpkish tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation resides. Colorful totem poles decorate a burial yard by the shore. These people crossed the strait from their traditional lands on Vancouver Island to settle Alert Bay in 1870 to work in a salmon cannery there. Less than a century before first contact with Europeans had been made.
Today we were invited to a traditional dance performance in the tribe’s ceremonial Big House. Outside a large native gathering and annual sporting competition was underway. The world’s tallest totem pole towered above everything else on the Big House lawn. Built in 1972, the ‘Sun Pole’ reaches 173 feet high and depicts the origin of the Nimpkish people, said to have descended from the sun in the form of a bird.
The Alert Bay Big House is a place of immense pride and vibrant cultural heritage. Five years ago a jealous arsonist destroyed the village’s old Big House. With overwhelming emotional and financial support the Kwakwaka’wakw community rebuilt. The new building’s exterior is adorned with the traditional poignant and unique geometric curvilinear artform of the region. Norine Charlie stood in the entranceway and welcomed us in to this gathering place.
Two huge cedar beams run through the central space. Two pairs of painted totemic house posts stand at opposite ends of the room. We watched traditional potlatch dances performed by three generations around a firepit to drumbeat and chanted song accompaniment. The dancers moved in colorful robes and blankets wearing masks and cedar bark headgear and carrying paddles and other traditional dance regalia.
A group elder spoke to us afterwards. She declared that theirs is indeed not a ‘vanishing race’ as some ethnologists ascribed; today they dance the dances that their people were once prohibited from performing. These children took time out from their weekend to dance for us to help further their cultural legacy, she said. “Each one of us is learning who we are.”
We moved down to the U’mista Cultural Center where earlier dance masks and accessories are beautifully displayed. Alert Bay residents were arrested in 1922 for potlatching and forced to forfeit their ceremonial regalia. The museum was built specifically to house these important artwork artifacts since their recent and ultimate return to the tribe.
Like a traditional ceremonial robe the legacy of these people is woven as a fabric, one of a longstanding tribal history and relation to nature, of adversity and hope, danced and continually revitalized. We appreciated the opportunity to be exposed to their culture.
The Sea Bird coursed along extensive Vancouver Island’s northeastern shore to horseshoe-shaped Cormorant Island. Here we docked at Alert Bay, a jewel of native Pacific Northwest heritage where the Nimpkish tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation resides. Colorful totem poles decorate a burial yard by the shore. These people crossed the strait from their traditional lands on Vancouver Island to settle Alert Bay in 1870 to work in a salmon cannery there. Less than a century before first contact with Europeans had been made.
Today we were invited to a traditional dance performance in the tribe’s ceremonial Big House. Outside a large native gathering and annual sporting competition was underway. The world’s tallest totem pole towered above everything else on the Big House lawn. Built in 1972, the ‘Sun Pole’ reaches 173 feet high and depicts the origin of the Nimpkish people, said to have descended from the sun in the form of a bird.
The Alert Bay Big House is a place of immense pride and vibrant cultural heritage. Five years ago a jealous arsonist destroyed the village’s old Big House. With overwhelming emotional and financial support the Kwakwaka’wakw community rebuilt. The new building’s exterior is adorned with the traditional poignant and unique geometric curvilinear artform of the region. Norine Charlie stood in the entranceway and welcomed us in to this gathering place.
Two huge cedar beams run through the central space. Two pairs of painted totemic house posts stand at opposite ends of the room. We watched traditional potlatch dances performed by three generations around a firepit to drumbeat and chanted song accompaniment. The dancers moved in colorful robes and blankets wearing masks and cedar bark headgear and carrying paddles and other traditional dance regalia.
A group elder spoke to us afterwards. She declared that theirs is indeed not a ‘vanishing race’ as some ethnologists ascribed; today they dance the dances that their people were once prohibited from performing. These children took time out from their weekend to dance for us to help further their cultural legacy, she said. “Each one of us is learning who we are.”
We moved down to the U’mista Cultural Center where earlier dance masks and accessories are beautifully displayed. Alert Bay residents were arrested in 1922 for potlatching and forced to forfeit their ceremonial regalia. The museum was built specifically to house these important artwork artifacts since their recent and ultimate return to the tribe.
Like a traditional ceremonial robe the legacy of these people is woven as a fabric, one of a longstanding tribal history and relation to nature, of adversity and hope, danced and continually revitalized. We appreciated the opportunity to be exposed to their culture.
