Memorial Totem Pole

Chief Kwekwelis [Kwa Kwa Ga Lis] memorial pole. Free standing totem poles such as this were usually memorial or commemorative poles erected in honour of a person who had died, usually by the successor to his name. The beings represented on Kwakwaka'wakw totem poles are those beings from mythical times who became, or were encountered by, the ancestors of those being commemorated, whose family claimed the figures as crests. Crests could also be obtained as marriage gifts.

In 1949, Mungo Martin left his home community of Tsaxis (Fort Rupert) to work at UBC on a four-year project to restore old totem poles (including A50037, A50038), and to carve two new memorial poles with his family’s crest figures (A50035, A50040). The figures Martin chose for the poles represent crests to which he had ancestral rights. This pole was removed from the MOA outdoor grounds and placed in storage in Sept. 2005, due to condition problems. The beak had been removed to storage in 1998 due to instability from inner rot in the top of the pole. In 2012 the pole was installed in the MOA Great Hall, with the beak re-attached using an internal steel mount.

status; memorial

Chief Kwekwelis [Kwa Kwa Ga Lis] memorial pole. Carved crest figures from top to bottom: Huxwhukw (man-eating, supernatural bird); Gigame’ (chief) holding frog; Nan (grizzly bear) holding k’utala (salmon); Ma’x’inux (killer whale); T’sawi (beaver).