The U’mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

The pride of Alert Bay is the U’mista Cultural Centre, which opened in 1980, and has an excellent display of artifacts relating to an important part of the culture of the First Nations people - the Potlatch.

The word potlatch comes from a word meaning ‘to give’, and that is loosely what the potlatch is about, the giving of gifts as a show of your generosity. The First Nations people place a high a value on a person’s generosity, so Chiefs would wish to display theirs by giving gifts, and a potlatch was where this would happen.

However, it was rather more important than that, as the potlatch effectively formed part of their legal process too.

The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

Potlatches were held by the chief of a tribe to mark important events. Much like in our own culture, people might gather to mark significant life events, such as births, marriages and deaths, and the coronations or inaugurations of new leaders. But whereas for us, the purpose of attending an event is simply to celebrate or commemorate it, for the First Nations people it would also serve the equivalent purpose of the legal record.

The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

We leave all that to the registrar or some other official, who keeps a written record of what has transpired, but in this culture, there is no such official, and no written communication, so the people who attended the event, which would include those from other tribes, would effectively act as those who would bear witness to it, should the need ever arise.

The potlatch ceremony would include storytelling and dance, and whatever the official business of the day was, followed by the giving out of the gifts. The fact that the guests take the gifts offered, confirms that they accept the event that has taken place, and will attest to it.

The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

This was all fine until we white settlers came along and wanted to ‘civilise’ everyone. Quite why we have the arrogance to believe that our way of doing things is the only right way, I don’t know, but that’s a question for another day. It wasn’t a problem early on, but as the colonial systems became established, frustrations grew with those pesky people that would insist on doing things their own way.

Chilkat Blanket, The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

In 1884, the first version of the Indian Act was passed, in an effort to stop the potlatch taking place, but it was ineffectual. The law was later revised, and when the potlatches continued, the authorities started to crack down. In December 1921, a potlatch was held in a place called Village Island, and forty-five people were arrested. Twenty-two of those were convicted of offences such as dancing, making speeches, and the giving of gifts.

The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

The sentences were suspended on condition that the tribe that each individual belonged to turned in all of their masks, chests and other items that were connected to the holding of a potlatch. The items confiscated were thankfully not destroyed, but were passed out to two main museums and private collectors.

Chilkat Blanket, The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

In this way, the First Nations tribes lost a huge part of their culture and heritage, as well as their established method of recording events. Some potlatches did continue ‘underground’ usually held during storms, when only the First Nations people were confident in travelling by canoe, as would have been necessary to reach the venues.

Items made from woven cedar bark, The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

Whilst I’m not going to go into it further now, I do just want to mention that of course the potlatch wasn’t the only thing that was banned. The legislation banned the use of First Nations languages, and required children to be sent to ‘residential schools’ where they were taught to abandon their own ways in favour of western culture and process, undermining the ability of the First Nations people to keep their culture and way of life alive.

Chilkat Blanket, The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

The Indian Act was revised again in 1951, and section 149 on the banning of the potlatch was deleted, but never officially repealed.  Nonetheless, in the latter third of the 1900s, steps were taken to start repatriating the potlatch ceremonial items that had been confiscated.

The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

The National Museum of Man in Ottawa, which had received a large share of the items, decided to return them to the First Nations people, on condition that two new museums were built to house them. This U’mista Cultural Centre is one of the two museums, and it now has a great collection of items.

Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in that section of the museum, so I can’t show you any of the pieces that they have. The photos that I have included were from the permitted section, and show other items of First Nations art and weaving.

The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

Those sections are OK, but probably not as good as the museums in Vancouver and Victoria. In terms of information and analysis, I would have liked to see more exploration of the issues surrounding the potlatch being banned, its impact, how the tribes tried to adapt, and now that it is being brought back into the culture, how these traditional aspects and stories are being reconciled with more western education, knowledge and process.

That said, the museum is definitely worth a visit, just for the potlatch ceremonial items, which are both interesting for their history and great pieces of artwork in their own right.

Head and neckwear, The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

Blanket and apron, The U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

A bit about Totem Poles

Compared to other areas of Canada, British Columbia retains quite a lot of its First Nations Heritage, and of course we wanted to find out a bit more about the people and take a look at one of the most iconic aspects of their culture, the totem pole. As we will be seeing a bit about this over the coming posts, I thought I’d drop in a quick background post, to help make sense of the posts to come.

We tend to think of Canada as a relatively new country, and that is true in terms of the white European settlement here. But of course, like so many countries that we British and other Europeans decided to claim as our own, there were already people living here when we arrived. The First Nations people are believed to have settled here at least 12,000 years ago, but it could have been longer ago than that. They lived in numerous tribal communities, with those in this British Columbia area known generically as the Pacific Coastal group.

The First Nations people did not have a written language, and totem poles form an important part of their culture, history and storytelling. They are all made of cedar wood, but can vary considerably, depending on the tribe, the carver, the wealth and status of the family, and the purpose of the pole.

There are three different types of pole. The first is a house pole. This was placed outside the home, and was decorated with family crest at the top, followed by other crests or symbols that are meaningful about the owner. A post could only show the crests that the owner was entitled to use, be that the symbol of their own tribe, or a crest that had been gifted to them through friendship, trade or other means.

The house pole therefore shows the story of the family, and can be viewed as a kind of address, as if you were visiting, you could look at a pole, and see information about the person that lived there and whether or not you would receive a warm welcome.

This type of pole was often taken by settlers and tourists, so is often found in museums around the world.

The second type is the memorial pole. These would predominantly have been put up by the Chief, and would have been created to commemorate a special event, and the carvings would represent the event that had occurred. These poles would also have had rings carved around it to record the potlatches that had been hosted by the Chief, as these were a symbol of his generosity and therefore his importance.

The third type is a mortuary pole. The First Nations people did not bury their dead. The bodies of those of a lower standing would be placed in a tree or cave to decompose, and allow their spirit to rise, and then their bones would be placed in a mortuary house behind the home. However, those of sufficient importance or wealth, would have their body put into a bentwood box, which would be placed on top of a mortuary pole, which would have carvings that represented the individual who had passed away.

The First Nations people generally believe that these posts should not be maintained, as when they fall, it is because the spirit of the person is now free, so the posts are left and allowed to gradually decay where they drop. It is these posts that are most likely to be the type that can still be found in old villages, as they were less likely to be removed.

While the carvings on totems are very symbolic, there is surprisingly little information about what they mean. Because the symbolism was personal to the owner, and the storytelling and nuances were created by the carver, each is very individual, and so similar images may in fact represent quite different meanings. Some of the stories of the totem would have been ‘told’ through dances and storytelling at the potlatch that would have been held to celebrate and witness the raising of the pole. I’ll talk more about potlatches in another post.

Stories of the totems may have been passed down through families, but they often get distorted, intentionally or otherwise, and when the colonial governments banned the language and the traditions of the First Nations people, much of their history, culture and stories were lost.

The crests and images are often steeped in supernatural beliefs, like the belief that many ancestors had the ability to change between human form and that of a particular animal or bird. Some of the beings were in themselves supernatural too, such as the Thunderbird, that controls the upper world and came down from the sky, took off its bird regalia, and became human, or the Dzunuk’wa, a wild woman, who smelled bad and was wicked, but a little stupid. She would capture children, but they would usually be able to escape.

Popular tribal crests include both these beings, plus more familiar creatures such as the eagle, raven, grizzly bear, killer whale and mountain goat. Some images are pretty recognisable, others might require a little imagination, or simply a bit of knowledge, like the fact that the depictions of the eagle and raven may look similar, (especially when the post is old and worn,) but the raven will always have a straight beak, while the tip of the eagle’s will be hooked over. The Thunderbird’s upper beak often will curve right under it’s lower beak .

That is just a quick introduction to some aspects of a totem pole, which I hope will be useful as we carry on our trip around British Columbia.