On Friday, 19 August 2022, Christian White (master carver of the Yahgulaanas clan of the Haida), with family, clan, and community, raised a totem pole in Old Masset, Haida Gwaii (BC, Canada) to honor his family, the Yahgulaanas/jaanas clan, and the Haida Nation. The Haida are famous historically for their elaborately carved totem poles. Raising the massive pole is a further step in rebuilding Haida monumental art, much of it lost through destruction or theft in the colonial suppression of Haida culture in the late 1800s through mid 1900s.
This blog post shares photos and background information, and finishes with some simple video montages from the preparation, pole raising, and feast.
The pole raising was followed by a feast Friday evening and Saturday featuring formal adoptions into the clan and the giving of Haida names, along with carved masks, dancing, singing, and the presentation of bentwood boxes, painted by apprentices who helped carve the pole. At the pole raising, Christian White was given a new Haida name, Kihlyahda, meaning “truthful” in Haida, given in honor of the service that he has given, helping Haida, particularly youth, connect with their history and culture through song, dance, story and the visual arts.
The monumental cedar tree was picked out years ago from the forests on Haida Gwaii. Because of the timing of when the tree was finally ready, carving the pole became a Covid time project,Christian White and a team of young apprentice carvers beginning work on it in early 2020. Over the two years of work on the pole, the apprentices developed their skills in carving and painting in the traditional 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional formline style, also creating masks and cedar bentwood boxes , which were presented at the pole raising feast
The carving, pole raising, and feast were community projects. All of the clan who could came together for rehearsals for the event and feast, with relatives coming down from Haidaberg in Alaska to participate in the event and help raise the pole. A delegation from the Heiltsuk community came to witness as well as to reaffirm their allegiance with the Haida. During the feast, many who were Haida by family but not part of the Haida matrilineal clan system were formally adopted into the clan.
See below for…
- A slideshow of photos from the pole raising and feast
- Some more background and context on the pole and the feast
- Video montages from the event
Haida visual art and the significance of a totem pole
The Northwest First Nations formline artstyle is recognized around the world. The visual art style is characterized by the use of curved lines and ovoid shapes following norms that govern their arrangement while still giving wide leeway both for content and artistic variation. The style of art is common to the First Nations in the region, but the Haida have by been considered by many to be the epicenter of the art, with strong consistency in the aesthetic rules governing the art. Haida artists have long traded their work outside of Haida territory, a practice that expanded with the coming of colonial traders and the European market.
The totem poles are carved from some of the oldest and largest of cedars… “monumental” cedars. The chemical properties of the cedar allow the wood to withstand the weather for an unusually long period, with some worn poles still standing after well over 100 years. It takes considerable time and resources to carve and raise a pole, and so in the pre-colonial era, a pole would be raised in part as a reliable signal of the success of clan and clan leadership. The pole would bring respect to the clan and the name of the one who raised the pole … a name that would be passed down to others in time. When European explorers encountered the Haida, the shores in front of the villages were be dotted with many of these monumental poles attesting to the long term success of the clans.
 Totem poles line the shore of Masset village, 1880. (photo: Royal BC Museum) |  Haida raise the first modern totem pole, August 1969. Pole carved by Robert and Reg Davidson. (photo: Royal BC Museum) |
The late 1800s, however, was devastating for the coastal First Nations. Disease, often intentionally spread by Canadian government representatives and traders, wiped out 90% of the Haida in the space of a few decades. Haida clans abandoned most of their villages and withdrew to two of them… Skidegate and Old Masset. Totem poles were either destroyed by colonial forces or were cut down and shipped to anthropological museums and private collectors in Europe and cities of North America. The Canadian government confiscated and destroyed First Nations art and cultural items and banned traditional practices and government. This ban was in place until 1951 when Canada finally lifted the potlatch ban.
The first modern totem pole was carved and raised in August 1969 by then 22 year old Robert Davidson, also of Old Masset, with the help of his brother Reg Davidson (then 14). At the time, the pole raising was a major landmark in the fight for Haida identity and was a trigger for dance and song that had been hidden behind closed doors away from Canadian police for generations to finally be brought back out into the open.
The layers of meaning and significance of the totem pole have continued to accumulate over time with shifting contexts. In pre-colonial times, it was a signal of the resource base and successful collective effort of those who raised it. In 1969, a layer of resistance and resurgence of identity was added to the pole with the first modern pole raising. And now, as Canadian arts funding and the international arts market recognize the aesthetic power and skills of Northwest First Nations artists, the pole signals something of this international artistic recognition.
Northwest First Nations governance and the feast hall
The raising of the pole in front of the community long house was followed by a feast. In regional First Nations society, any act of significant business needs to be formalized through witnessed ceremony in a feast (potlatch. Declaring business in the feast hall signals the consensus behind it, where the business is honored with the sharing of song, dance and speeches. Witnesses signal their agreement with the business at hand through their presence, certifying and giving weight to the business with their attendance. Witnesses are honored for this with food and gifts. Like with the pole raising, in pre-colonial times, the holding of a feast was a reliable signal that those hosting the feast had been successful enough in their business in the world to have the resources to hold the feast. For this reason, a big, well attended feast would bring honor on those who held it and fed their guests well.
Different Nations have differing traditions around this, but for the Haida, feasts are wide open events where all with good intentions are invited.
Beyond celebrating the pole raising, part of the business of the feast was to reinforce the connection between Heiltsuk and Haida peoples. A Heiltsuk contingent was there at the event for this purpose. Heiltsuk and Haida clans were at war with each other for hundreds of years in the pre-colonial era. This ended with a peace treaty announced at a potlatch in the 1850s, which was finally put into writing and signed at series of feasts in Masset and Bella Bella in 2014 and 2015. These agreements recognized that colonial oppression and displacement was a bigger problem for them than each other. Heiltsuk representatives shared dances and song and brought gifts to the pole raising feast as part of ongoing cultural exchange.
Another important item of the business of the feast was a wave of formal adoptions and the giving out of Haida names, both to adopted clan members and those born into the clan. The adopting of people with Haida ancestry who are not part of a matrilineal clan is a way of coping with lingering impacts of colonial disruptions
Matriline
Haida clan membership is matrilineal. One’s context is defined by being part of a clan. One’s clan membership is defined by who your mother is. To make it a bit confusing for outsiders, the English word “clan” is sometimes used for different levels of family (The confusion does not exist in the Haida language). There are two overarching clans (sometimes called “moieties” by anthropologists) for the Haida: Raven and Eagle. Theses overarching clans are themselves divided into clans (in some other nations called “Houses”). Traditionally these clans were the primary family, social, and governmental units. They are exogamous… traditionally, a Raven never marries a Raven and an Eagle never an Eagle. A man acquires obligations to the clan of his wife and to his children, but his children are not of his clan. Christian White is Yahgulaanas clan, a Raven.
During the era of forced assimilation, Canada worked to destroy indigenous identity and governance and forcibly indoctrinated indigenous people in European family reckoning. The reservation and band council governance system in Canada was set up based on European bilateral kinship reckoning weighted toward the father. This was intended to disrupt traditional identity and matrilineal governance and to eventually destroy indigenous identity through dilution. In Western kin reckoning. One is 50% part of one’s mother’s family and 50% from one’s father’s. Over generations, this mixing would lead to dilution of indigenous identity and loss of indigenous rights (at least as recognized by the Canadian government). In traditional Haida reckoning, one was first and foremost part of a clan and one either was in the clan or not. There is no such thing as “part Yahgulaanas”.
Haida have for generations now grown up with mixed messaging… western ideas of bilateral kinship inherited from English language and western schooling where one is part of both mother and father’s families (with more identity and rights following one’s father’s family) mixed with traditional ideas of matrilineal clan membership. There was a lot of variation in how well traditional matrilineal connection was preserved. Many who consider themselves Haida or “part Haida” are not part of a clan, either because their mothers’ line is unclear, or because they do not have matrilineal Haida descent. This is particularly the case for many not living on Haida Gwaii. This causes confusion around a sense of belonging or family connection, but it also has political ramifications in terms of who gets to have a say over Haida politics.
Back in the 1980s, the Haida confronted this issue of “who is a Haida” in the context of a big push to fight for rights and control of their land as Haida and a desire for a strong, united front. The expedient solution as the Council of the Haida Nation was formed was to sidestep the problem and just accept anyone, whether Haida by matriline or Haida by Canadian “blood quantum” counting, as part of the Haida nation, embracing both the bands and the matrilines, with most people concerned being part of both anyway. However, this still left some issues of inclusion and identity.
One solution discussed has been to formally adopt non-clan family members into a clan so they are included in the matrilineal system and have a clear place in feast hall politics and culture. Adopted clan members are then, for most purposes, full members of the clan as would be the children of any women adopted in. This custom of adoption predates the colonial era and is often done in the case of a Haida marrying a non-Haida, where the non-Haida spouse would be formally adopted by an opposite moiety clan. The sweep of adoptions as part of the Tluu Haada Nay pole raising feast have now brought many family members more clearly into the matrilineal clan system