gyảaGang (House Frontal Totem Pole)

Carved as the frontal pole for the front of the Haida house, at the University of British Columbia, for display in Totem Park. Moved to the new Museum of Anthropology grounds sometime between 1975-1978. The pole was removed from the Haida House in Sept 2000 and placed in a tent for conservation treatment and drying. A new pole was raised outside to replace it (see Nb1.752). Jim Hart, with Reg Davidson, Michael Nicoll and Tyler Crosby, performed a small informal ceremony in preparation for the re-raising of the pole on Oct. 30, 2002 (with Martine Reid in attendance). The pole was then raised in the Great Hall of the Museum on Oct. 31, 2002.

Wood pole carved in shallow and deep relief and crescent shaped in cross section. The motifs are, beginning at top: the three watchmen wearing hats with three potlatch rings, the centre figure is larger and his nose is the back fin of the dogfish. The tail of the dogfish protrudes out from the middle of the watchmen and curls outward. Dogfish has large eyes and a mouth that holds the tail fin of a killer whale. In the ears of the eagle is a small frog. The killer whale is biting the head of the eagle which is holding on to the spikes of a sculpin. The bottom figure is killer whale with an enclosed human wrapped in its fins. The pole is painted black, red and blue with Northwest Coast stylized designs.