Chief Wakas Totem Pole in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC, Canada
The Chief Wakas Totem Pole is a highly unique and storied monument standing inside Stanley Park.
The original historic column was placed directly at the front entranceway to Chief Wakas's traditional home in Alert Bay. It featured an outspread Raven's body painted across the house facade, designed so that guests would structurally enter the longhouse straight through the raven's open mouth portal.
Plaque Transcription
CHIEF WAKAS POLE
IN KWAKWAKA'WAKW (KWAKIUTL) CEREMONIES, CARVED staffs called talking sticks are held by people making important speeches on behalf of a chief. This pole represents the talking stick and characters in an Owikeno story belonging to Chief Wakas. The original pole was raised in front of Chief Wakas' house in Alert Bay in the 1890s. The raven's beak opened to form a ceremonial entrance to the house, while the raven's body was painted on the house front. Nimpkish artist Doug Cranmer, who has inherited Chief Wakas' crests, carved this new pole in 1987.
Photo caption: Chief Wakas' house in Alert Bay, ca. 1910.
Crest Display Hierarchy
From the top apex anchor down to the ground foundation, the stylized figures carved into this pole represent consecutive hereditary characters:
- Thunderbird (anchoring the top apex)
- Killer Whale
- Wolf
- The Wise One
- Huxwhukw (a legendary, mythical bird of the woods)
- Bear
- Raven (forming the open-beak baseline portal foundation)
Photo Gallery
Where is the Chief Wakas Totem Pole?
The Chief Wakas Totem Pole is on public display alongside the other historic cedar monuments inside the primary First Nations Totem Poles meadow exhibition clearing at Brockton Point in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC, Canada.