Kwakiutl house frame #4, Totem Park, UBC, Vancouver
- 134-a040110c
- Item
- 7 Aug. 1972
Part of E. Polly Hammer fonds
UBC Totem Park – (Sea-Lion and Thunderbird House) c. 1900 Knight Inlet. No longer on display. Now in storage at MOA.
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Kwakiutl house frame #4, Totem Park, UBC, Vancouver
Part of E. Polly Hammer fonds
UBC Totem Park – (Sea-Lion and Thunderbird House) c. 1900 Knight Inlet. No longer on display. Now in storage at MOA.
Kwakiutl (carved by Mungo Martin), Alert Bay sea lion pole #2, Totem Park - UBC, Vancouver
Part of E. Polly Hammer fonds
Originally carved by Mungo Martin in 1902 (Alert Bay). Refurbished by Mungo Martin in 1949. Erected in UBC Totem Park and moved to MOA Great Hall c. 1976.
The series contains records created during a number of visits and projects completed with the Kwakwaka'wakw of Alert Bay.
After meeting David Grubb at the Salish Conferences in the early 1970s, Jensen was invited by Grubb to attend a potlatch on Gilford Island, just off Alert Bay. It was the first potlatch that she attended, and Jensen photographed it in black and white without flash.
Around the same time, Gloria Cranmer Webster began involving her UBC colleague Powell in discussions on the development of a Kwak’wala orthography. The two worked on this project during their breaks at work, with the main end goal to create accurate labels for artefacts at the museum, then located in the basement of the library on campus.
In 1975, after she moved back to Alert Bay, Webster contacted Powell and asked him to assist her in the creation of a language and culture book for Kwak’wala speaking people. Powell travelled to Alert Bay, the first of many trips to do such work. Over the next few years, Powell and Jensen were invited to Alert Bay on a number of occasions to attend potlatches, pole raisings, and other community events. Jensen photographed the events, as well as other aspects of the community such as the day care and band school.
In 1980 Webster, on behalf of the U’Mista Cultural Centre, secured salaries for both Jensen and Powell for one full year. They were hired to produce language and culture books, but in reality helped with many other aspects leading to the opening of the Centre. They rented a house in the village and lived there full time for the year, immersing themselves in the community, and creating a body of records that integrates both work and community life. Jensen had permission to photograph extensively, and these are all included in this series. Powell did linguistic research and worked with teachers from both the band school and the provincial school that were located in the village. Jensen also photographed language and culture lessons to be used in the books being produced. During the year they lived in Alert Bay, they produced 12 language books and a teacher’s manual for U’mista.
In 1982 Powell and Jensen purchased a house in Alert Bay, further cementing their intentions to maintain connections to the community. They continued to attend and photograph events and potlatches between projects.
In 1983 the Kwak’wala Teacher Training Program (KTTP) was developed by Powell and Jensen. The program was a college credit course for local area teachers to train them to lead language and culture lessons in their classes. Jensen and Powell divided their teaching duties, involving another teacher named Joy Wild. The program was successful for two years.
Over the next 20 years many of their visits were social in nature, although they continued to keep a detailed record of the events they attended. In 2001 they completed a CD-ROM for the Learning Kwak’wala series. This project had been ongoing for some time.
The series also contains photographic records of two events that took place outside the realm of the language projects. The Canadian Museum of Civilisation hired Doug Cranmer to carve a new Wakas Pole to replace the decaying version in Stanley Park and contacted Jensen to document the event. The second set of photographs records a trip organised by U’Mista Cultural Centre for scholars and experts to visit Mimkwamlis (Village Island) and T’sadzis’nukwakme’ (New Vancouver).
The records kept in this series consist of recordings, photographs, research notes, draft teaching aids, and copies of completed resources for both children’s education and the KTTP.
The series consists of eleven sub-series:
A. U’Mista research/background
B. Research materials
C. Field notes
D. Publications
E. Kwak’wala teacher training program
F. Kwak’wala CD-ROM project
G. Kwak’wala photographs
H. Potlatch photographs.
I. Wakas pole raising in Stanley Park 1987 photographs
J. Trip to Village Island and Tzatsisnukomi (New Vancouver) photographs 2005.
K. Audio recordings
Kitty (Cathy) Ferry: Fish Taxonomy
Kitty (Cathy) Ferry talks about fish taxonomy with Martine de Widerspach-Thor (Reid) in English and Kwakwala. Recorded at Mrs. Kitty Ferry's house in Vancouver. Item was labelled as tape number III.
Martine J. Reid
Kingcome Inlet & Gwayasdums (Gilford Island)
Part of Anthony Carter fonds
File consists of images of the Kingcome Inlet and Gilford Island, both in the central coast area of British Columbia. Scenery and individuals from the area are featured.
Anthony Carter
Killer Whale arch, Alert Bay cemetery
View of the Killer Whale Arch located at the entrance to the Kwatiul Indian Cemetery. This arch is a memorial to a boy lost at sea. Located at Alert Bay, British Columbia. Several crosses and memorial totem poles are visible behind this archway.
Part of MOA General Media collection
Image of interior house posts in an abandoned settlement. These appear to be the house posts that were transported from Hope Island to the Museum of Anthropology in 1956.
Part of MOA General Media collection
Image of interior house posts in an abandoned settlement. These appear to be the house posts that were transported from Hope Island to the Museum of Anthropology in 1956.
Part of MOA General Media collection
Image of a bear shaped interior house post. This appears to be a house post that was transferred from Hope Island to the Museum of Anthropology in 1956.
Part of MOA General Media collection
Image of a bear shaped interior house post. This appears to be a house post that was transferred from Hope Island to the Museum of Anthropology in 1956.
Part of Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada Slide Collection
Item is a hand-tinted glass lantern slide of the inside of a building with two house posts. Based on the original order of the collection, photograph might have been taken in Alert Bay.
House posts and beam, Quatsino, BC
Part of Harry B. Hawthorn fonds
Image of the houseposts and beam of what once was a longhouse in Quatsino, BC, on the north end of Vancouver Island. These posts appear to be the same as posts now houses at the Museum of Anthropology (museum item number A50009 a-c). The poles are described on the museum's catalogue: "Two upright posts and crossbeam that were part of a large interior house frame (also see records d-f and g-h). The uprights depict sea lions carved in high relief and painted (parts a-b). Their heads are equal size to their bodies. Both part a and b have an eagle in profile within the sea lions front flippers. Part a has a top portion of a face painted on the back of its head that is part of a sisiutl that runs down the seal lions back and into its hind flipper with a serpent's head in each. The cross-beam (part c) is painted and carved as a supernatural double-headed sea lion. All parts are painted black and white with Northwest Coast stylized forms... The Klix'ken (sea lion) House was commissioned by Tza'kyius around 1906, and was the last old style house erected in Xwatis. The beams and figures stood as part of a house frame, and acted as structural supports. Figures represented on house frames were supernatural beings which the family living in the house had the right, through their history and origins, to represent."
Hope Island, Humchitt posts rear
Part of Harry B. Hawthorn fonds
Image of two old house posts on Hope Island, BC. The post on the right appears to be the same as a post now housed at the Museum of Anthropology, that was collected from Hope Island in 1956. Both posts feature a human figure with large eyes. On one post, the figure is holding a small face near its waist. On the other post, the figure is holding what appears to be an animal of some kind. The Museum of Anthropology's website provides the following description of the posts: "The posts of the unfinished house of Ha'm'cit were carved by a man from Smith Inlet called Si.wit who moved to Xu'mtaspi and married Tom Omhyid's mother. Ha'm'cit died before the house was finished. (Information provided to Prof. Wilson Duff by Mungo Martin). The artist's potlatch name was P'aczsmaxw. Wayne Suttles places the Xu'mtaspi village as Nahwitti, in historic times, however it was occupied jointly by the Nahwitti, the Yalhinuxw, and the Noqemqilisala (of Hanson Lagoon)."
History of Copper (20 coppers from Alert Bay), GW(?) Hunt, 1924
Part of Director's fonds
Photocopy of a manuscript about coppers from Alert Bay, BC. Front page notes that it was "sent by GW(?) Hunt, Port Hardy, BC." It also has a stamp from the "Department of Mines geological Survey, received Mar 26, 1924. Division of Anthropology."
Original manuscript might be at UBC's Rare Books and Special Collections library.
Part of Anthony Carter fonds
Image of the Gilford Island longhouse, see from the water.
Anthony Carter
Gwayasdums (Gilford Island): village
Part of Anthony Carter fonds
Image of the Gilford Island longhouse, see from the water.
Anthony Carter
Gwayasdums (Gilford Island): mountain with totem pole in foreground
Part of Anthony Carter fonds
Image of the upper part of an old totem pole at Kingcome Inlet.
Anthony Carter
Gov. General and Mrs. Mitchner [sic] visit to Alert Bay
Photograph of former Canadian Governor General Roland Michener and two unidentified individuals, standing near two totem poles. The poles may be in the Namgis Burial Grounds.
Mildred Laurie
Gov. General and Mrs. Mitchner [sic] visit to Alert Bay
Photograph of former Canadian Governor General Roland Michener and his wife at what appears to be the Namgis Burial Grounds in Alert Bay, BC. The poles were possibly made by Charlie James.
Mildred Laurie
George Hunt Sr. pole (Kwakwaka’wakw)
Part of Anthony Carter fonds
Image of totem pole carved by George Hunt Sr. The pole is now part of the museum's collection.
This pole was originally carved for the Edward S. Curtis film "In the Land of the War Canoes" which was originally titled "In the Land of the Head Hunters". The pole was repaired and re-painted by carvers Ellen Neel in 1949 and Mungo Martin in 1950-51. It stood at Totem Park, UBC Campus until it was re-located to the Museum's Great Hall in 1976.
Anthony Carter