Approximately six years after he was removed from a St. Catharines park, Ontario, a beloved totem is again in the community.
Commissioner in 1966 for the 100th birthday of Canada, the centennial Totem was carved by the late Doug Cranmer, an artist of Kwakwa̱kakw and hereditary chief of the nation ʼna̱mǥis.
About 13 meters high, the totem, with sizes of figures that include a Thunderbird, Bear and Cedar Man, stopped in Richard Pierpoint Park in the Queenston neighborhood until 2019, when it was eliminated for restoration.
During his 50 years in the park, the work of art acquired importance locally, said the member of the six -nations Wolf clan, Phil Davis, to CBC Hamilton.
“It has become part of our fabric and has come to represent a place of hope and faith so that our people meet over the years,” he said.
Davis works as a Cultural Resources Coordinator for the Niágara Regional Native Center (NRNC) and said such spaces are important for a community that tries to find its identity in an urban environment.
“When we have something as magnificent as a totem, we begin to understand it at a deeper level,” he said. “That is something that is very necessary these days in the crazy world in which we live.”
The totem are not usual in the region
Despite its local importance, Totem carving is not a tradition among indigenous peoples in the earth of the Treaty 3. The totem come from the northwest of the Pacific.
At the time the totem was commissioned, “it was not uncommon for municipalities and governments to celebrate the colonization of Canada through the purchase of indigenous pieces of art,” said the Coordinator of the culture of St. Catharines, Olivia Hope.
They were often Western works that were adjusted to “the idea of what was indigenous at that time,” said Hope, added that the city probably saw it as something to represent the indigenous community in Niagara.
The hope is Oneida, Haudenausaunee, of six nations of the Grand River and also has Québécois and the Polish heritage.
Around 2017, said Hope, the city, NRNC and the members of the local community began to discuss what to do with the totem, which was in “difficult way,” according to Bruce Alfred, the artist who eventually restored it.
She said that Cranmer’s family was contacted and was in favor of the totem was restored. They also suggested that Alfred is the one who leads the process.
Alfred is also an artist from the Kwakwa̱ka̱wakww, who lives in Alert Bay, BC, and learned with Cranmer.
Agreed to restore it and the totem reinstated within the Canada game park.
‘It was such a character’
Although it could not have “exactly the same connection” with the community that before, Hope said that the totem will still be accessible.
“That way, generations after generations could enjoy it,” said Alfred. “Otherwise, in 10 years, one will return to one before we restore it.”
Alfred and two other indigenous artists, Dominique Wells and Cole Speck, four weeks and long hours to restore the piece, he said.
He said the piece needed “a lot of work” since, in addition to climate damage, the totem had caught fire, which created a cavity inside it. Then someone filled it with cement, which Alfred said it was “a job and a half” to eliminate.
“It ended up being a great concrete there. We had to get a miniature jackhammer to separate it,” he said.
It was not the first time that Alfred was restoring a piece made by his mentor, but that did not make him less special or educational.
“It’s always a learning experience. You know, I kept thinking: ‘It’s fine, what would Doug do?'” He said.
For Alfred, Cranmer was more than a teacher.
“Doug was my boss, my uncle, my mentor, even a father figure for me, which meant a lot,” he said. “He was such a character.”
‘There is a lot of pride there’
Hope said the restoration was a learning experience for the city and an opportunity for indigenous people to share their knowledge.
“I think that also what has stood out for the city and, hopefully, for other cities it is the need for local indigenous art to become more public, it is believed, so that the light was shining,” he said.
Davis said his participation in the restoration was carried out through his work, but “it expanded beyond that.”
He and Hope would have conversations about what the totem represents, he said, and even considered “returning to nature.”
Alfred invited Davis to the installation of Totem Pole as a witness, which he was “quite surprising.”
“It was incredible to walk and see him again, like seeing an old friend,” he said.
Alfred said that the totem was a work of art that “became ceremonial,” due to how the premises, indigenous and no, hugged her.
“There is a lot of pride there,” he said.
