The aging totem pole falls down at a ceremony outside the Royal BC Museum
The second totem was removed due to internal damage from contact with the elements
Women dance during the Abyas song to clean and bless the floor for the 1955 replica of the cedar funeral pole carved by Mungo Martin. This was removed from Thunderbird Park on Wednesday, June 5, 2019 during a memorial service on the grounds of the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, BC. (THE CANADIAN PRESS / Chad Hipolito)
An aging totem pole telling the story of a murdered woman was lowered during a ceremony outside the Royal BC Museum in Victoria.
Dancers circled the replica Haida mortuary pole that has stood in the museum’s Thunderbird Park for nearly 65 years before it was hooked to a crane and gently lowered to the ground.
It is the second totem to be removed from the park in the past few days after engineers discovered that the poles had suffered internal damage from the elements and were in danger of falling.
Hereditary Haida chief Reg Young says the original pole was carved in honor of a woman from his village of Tanu who was murdered in the 19th century on the US San Juan Islands between Vancouver Island and Washington state.
According to Young, the funeral poles contained the deceased’s remains and were placed in villages to announce the death of a person and to reveal their status in the community.
READ MORE: Two totem poles in Victoria’s Thunderbird Park
The Haida Pol is transported to the Kwakiutl First Nation near Port Hardy on the northern island of Vancouver, home of Mungo Martin, the indigenous artist who carved both totems.
The Canadian press
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