Peace Arch Park Totem Pole Restored

by Tom Cochran

Title

Peace Arch Park Totem Pole Restored

Artist

Tom Cochran

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

Peace Arch Park straddles the Canada-US border. This totem, a replica of a traditional totem pole in the village of Skedans in Haida Gwaii, had been installed without ceremony at the old Peace Arch Visitor Centre some time in the 1950s. A new visitors centre was built in 2008, and this totem was removed and cast aside. Semiahmoo First Nations people recovered and cared for the totem, a grizzly bear pole, for a decade. In 2018, the SFN were able to convince the BC provincial government to restore and replace the totem. At a ceremony installing the totem next to the flower garden that forms the Maple Leaf Canada flag on September 21, 2018, Premier John Horgan stated that a wrong had been righted. Elders and chiefs from the Semiahmoo and Haida First Nations people, including the grandson of the carver Mungo Martin, attended the ceremony in Peace Arch Provincial Park which honored First Nations traditions. (Surrey Now-Leader, Sept 25, 2018) June, 2023.

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June 8th, 2023

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