Tourists to British Columbia’s most-visited sites ― Stanley Park in Vancouver and the Parliament Buildings in Victoria ― are bound to notice carved poles with stylized creatures, one on top of the other, planted in the lawns. More totem poles, as the objects are called, can be viewed at the Royal BC Museum or the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. But to see them as they deserve to be seen ― in their natural environment ― requires a trip to Alert Bay.

Situated on Cormorant Island off the northern tip of Vancouver Island, Alert Bay is a six-hour drive north from Victoria on the Island Highway and a 45-minute ferry ride from Port McNeill. Remote though it may be, the town once hosted the largest salmon cannery on the Northwest Coast. For the indigenous people, the ‘Namgis tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations, the island was a sacred part-time residence until they were encouraged to settle to work in the salmon operations.

With the cannery closed since the Great Depression, the waters fish-depleted and only a few hundred fishermen still based in the area, the ‘Namgis First Nation has reasserted its original connection with the island, which has two reservations ― plots of land set aside by the government for First Nations.

Visitors are initially greeted by the colorful strip of heritage buildings on Fir Street, known locally as “downtown,” across the strait from a particularly mountainous section of Vancouver Island. Downtown can be walked in about 10 minutes at an ambling place and is especially serene in the morning, when submerged in mist. Colin Ritchie, owner of The Seine Boat Inn, describes the morning commute for staff of the Medical and Dental Clinic, and others, as “rush minute.”

Though the ferry carries cars, visitors need only travel as walk-on passengers, as the island can be covered on foot. It’s a remarkably friendly place, with just about every passerby saying hello, and there are no bears or cougars living on the island.

From the ferry terminal at the eastern end of the long bay ― the island is shaped like a cashew ― a walk past the Korean War memorial to the end of Fir Street leads to the Original ‘Namgis Burial Grounds, where about 20 totem poles, some almost brand new and some positively ancient, stand as memorials for deceased community members.

While Korea has its own brand of “totem poles,” called jangseung, these are usually unpainted and feature only one male or female general per pole. They were traditionally placed at the edge of villages to scare away evil spirits.

The totem poles carved on the Northwest Coast of Canada and the U.S., and as far north as Alaska, had multiple functions and generally depicted family crests: A chief whose family crest is a raven might commission a totem pole with a raven at the base. Ultimately, though, “The true meanings of the majority of extant poles have died with the people for whom and by whom they were carved,” explains Totem Poles of Alert Bay, an informational pamphlet offered by the Visitor Center. 

Heading west from Fir Street along the boardwalk leads to the former St. Michael’s Residential School and the U’mista Cultural Center. Now with chipped red brick and broken windows, the school, built in 1929 and in operation until the early ’70s, stands as a symbol of the Canadian government’s failed attempt to assimilate native communities into mainstream society through policies aimed at stamping out their culture.

Next to the boarded-up entrance of the school, an artist was working on a welcoming pole ― a three-week project involving local youth.

While the goal of St. Michael’s had been to erase ‘Namgis culture, the U’mista Cultural Center, founded in 1980, houses masks and ceremonial objects that have been reclaimed from museums in Ottawa and Toronto, and as far away as the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian Board of Trustees, in Washington, D.C. One mask is here on long-term loan from the British Museum. The repatriated items had been confiscated in 1921 following a potlatch ceremony, declared illegal at the time.

Inside the Cultural Center, the returned masks and ceremonial items are displayed according to when they would appear during a potlatch ― a ceremony marking major events in the community, including weddings and deaths, and common to the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest. The chief who hosted a potlatch would bestow gifts to the guests; masks would also be displayed and dances performed.

Along with masks of familiar creatures like wolves, eagles, grizzly bears and whales, the museum houses masks of the supernatural bird the Huxwhukw, which according to an informational placard “uses its long, snapping beak to crack open the skulls of men to eat their brains or to pluck out their eyeballs.”

There’s also an odiferous “wild woman of the woods” called Dzunukwa, a two-headed sea serpent with a human head in the middle called Sisiyutl and a small, solitary man named Bakwas who eats “rotten wood, maggots, toads, snakes and lizards” in the forest and cockles on the beach.

The U’mista Cultural Center (www.umista.ca) is open daily from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. until Sept. 6, and the same times from Tuesday-Saturday from Sept. 9-May 23, 2015. The entrance charge is C$11.20 ($10.20) for adults, and free for children under 8.

Facing the interior of the island, it’s a few short blocks to the Big House, with a toothy, turquoise face painted across its wide front. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about a dozen big houses on the island, used then as dwelling places, while the current Big House is used mainly for potlatches.

On the field next to the Big House stands the world’s highest totem pole, completed in the late ’60s and raised in 1973. At 53 meters, it towers far above even the highest cedars on the island and remains in place, like a mystical transmission tower, thanks to iron supports locked around the neck of the lowest figure and cables extending from near the top.


Getting there

B.C. Ferries has six sailings a day from Port McNeill and back, at C$11.65 for adult walk-on passengers. For more information, call (250) 956-4533 or visit www.bcferries.com/schedules/northern/pmab-current.php.

Lodging

Options range from a campground to renovated heritage buildings like The Seine Boat Inn (www.seineboatinn.com). Formerly a dry goods store built on stilts over the beach, rooms are comfortable, clean and contain kitchenettes. They start at C$110.

Dining

Among the several restaurants in Alert Bay, Bayside Grill, run by an Indian couple from Punjab state, features an extensive range of dishes, including tandoori halibut, and breakfast served all day. It’s open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For more information, contact or visit the Visitor Center (info@alertbay.ca; (250) 974-5024), open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (but closed during lunchtime).

By Matthew C. Crawford (mattcrawford@heraldcorp.com)