By Alexandra Mehl, Ha-Shilth-Sa – Published August 7, 2023
Tofino, BC – On Tuesday, Aug. 1, Naa’was totem pole was raised at Naa’waya’sum garden in Tofino, depicting “responsibilities to future generations”.
“This here is like a legal document of our peoples,” said Joe Martin (Tutakwisnapšiƛ), Tla-o-qui-aht master carver.
The Naa’was totem pole was carved by Joe in collaboration with Gordon Dick, Robin Rorick, Patrick Amos, and Robinson Cook.
“When Europeans first arrived here, certainly, we were illiterate to the things that they wrote on papers,” said Martin. “But so are they when it’s in our totem poles; they also had no idea what these things are about.”
“It’s depicting our responsibilities to our future generations,” he continued.
Martin explained that the crests at the top and bottom are the most important parts of the totem pole.
“The top crest can be the crest of the sun, which is the top one up here, or the crest of the moon, which is going to rise later, full, tonight,” he said, referring to the full sturgeon moon that was brightly welcomed later that night.
“The other ones you’ll find on top of totem pole[s] are the Thunderbirds… the ones with the wings open, that’s depicting our male ancestry,” said Martin. “The ones with the wings closed, it depicts our female ancestry.”
“Always on the chest of the male Thunderbird is depicted the crest of the sun, and on the female Thunderbird, it’s the crest of the moon,” he added. “They’re up there, because it’s about the first teaching and the first law and that’s about respect.”
Martin explained that the crest of the sun is a teaching that begins as soon as a baby is conceived and in the belly of the mother.
“The elders would come there, and they would sing a lullaby when mom was carrying you; and it’s a lullaby and a teaching that went on throughout life,” he said. “Once you were born and every time you’re being fed, they would sing this lullaby for you, and when you began to speak that is when they began to speak to you about being respectful.”
Martin then explained that the second most important teaching, which speaks of fear, occurred when children reached a time when they lost their baby teeth and their adult teeth set in; they would be initiated into the wolf clan. He explained that the initiation happened after Dec. 21, between the new moon and full moon.
“The elders said if you are afraid and wanting to learn something and say you only learned so much,” said Joe. “They’d always say if you’re not afraid… you can learn anything.”
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