Kakasoʼlas pole

Kakasoʼlas pole
Four brightly coloured totem poles in front of trees in a sunny park
Kakaso’las totem pole in Stanley Park, centre foreground
ArtistEllen Neel
Year1955
Location

The Kakasoʼlas pole, also known as the Eagle Pole,[1] is a totem pole created by Canadian and Kwakwakaʼwakw carver Ellen Neel. Carved in 1955 as part of a five-pole commission for a Woodward's store in Edmonton, Alberta, the pole was donated in 1984 to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. The museum loaned the totem pole to the local park board, and it was installed at Brockton Point in Stanley Park in Vancouver in 1985. It remained in the parks for the next several decades before being removed in 2024 and returned to the museum's collection.

History

Ellen Neel, a Canadian and Kwakwakaʼwakw carver and one of the few successful female totem pole carvers of her time,[2][3] received permission in the 1940s to carve and sell her art in Vancouver's Stanley Park.[4] She worked from a studio in Ferguson point; the studio had previously been a WW2 bunker.[5] In 1955, she was commissioned by the department store Woodward's to carve five totem poles for their Westmount Shopping Centre in Edmonton, Alberta.[6][5][2] The poles were carved by her and her family that year near Neel's Totem Art Studio, in Stanley Park, and installed at the shopping centre.[2][7]

In 1984, several years after Neel's death, Woodward's donated the Kakasoʼlas totem pole to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC in Vancouver.[5][4][2] Two of the other poles Neel had carved for Woodward were also acquired by the museum.[8] The museum, "in memory of Neel's pioneering role in reaching an international audience through her art",[8][6] loaned the Kakasoʼlas pole to the park board; after undergoing restorations by Neel's son, Robert, the totem pole was installed at Brockton Point in Stanley Park in September 1985.[4][7][5] It replaced an older totem pole.[7][9] In 2012, it was the oldest totem pole in the park.[10]

Citing the pole's deteriorating condition, the Museum of Anthropology and Neel's family decided to remove the totem pole from the park in 2024 and take it to an indoor location at the museum.[4][2] The totem pole was removed in September of that year; Neel's granddaughter, Lou-ann Neel, sang and performed a ceremony as it was taken down.[11] According to Lou-ann Neel, even though the Museum of Anthropology was in Vancouver, not Ellen Neel's ancestral home, she wanted to respect the commercial nature of the Kakasoʼlas pole. Additionally, Neel's home community did not have the resources to maintain and extensive totem pole collection.[2]

Description

Closeup of a brightly painted thunderbird against a dark blue sky; the bird is white with a yellow beak and blue, black, and red details all over
Thunderbird closeup showing cracks in the painting and wood and vegetation/moss obscuring part of the pole
Closeups of the thunderbird at the top of the pole

The Kakasoʼlas totem pole is 6 metres (20 ft) tall[12] and depicts several Kwakwakaʼwakw figures.[2] At the top of the pole is a thunderbird. Below it is a sea bear with an orca in its arms; the sea bear itself stands on a human figure holding a frog. Beneath those are Bakwas, then the giantess Dzunukwa. At the base of the pole is Raven.[6][5]

The totem pole's name comes from Ellen Neel's own Kwak'wala language name: Kakasoʼlas. According to Neel's granddaughter, Lou-ann Neel, "There may have been an assumption that that was what the pole was named, and it just came to be called that after a while. [The family] didn't have a problem with it because it still associated the pole with my grandmother".[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jonaitis, Aldona; Glass, Aaron (2010). The Totem Pole: An Intercultural History. University of Washington Press and Douglas & McIntyre. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-295-98962-4.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kulkarni, Ashkay (2024-09-04). "Totem pole in Vancouver's Stanley Park moved". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2026-01-13. Retrieved 2026-05-16.
  3. ↑ Bryson, Laurel (1988-06-16). "Caring for those famous totem poles is a tall order". The Vancouver Sun. p. 78. Retrieved 2026-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Crawford, Tiffany (2024-08-16). "Stanley Park totem pole taking flight to museum". The Vancouver Sun. pp. A7. Retrieved 2026-05-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Stewart, Hilary (1993). Looking at Totem Poles. Douglas & McIntyre and University of Washington Press. p. 86.
  6. 1 2 3 Jensen, Vickie (2004). The Totem Poles of Stanley Park. Subway Books. pp. 38–39. ISBN 0-9687163-8-5.
  7. 1 2 3 "Totem goes up". The Province. 1985-09-26. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 Griffin, Kevin (2008-08-02). "Totem pole most-visited site in B.C." The Vancouver Sun. p. 51. Retrieved 2026-05-17.
  9. ↑ "Pole placed in park". The Vancouver Sun. 1985-09-26. p. 3. Retrieved 2026-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ Kalman, Harold; Ward, Robin (2012). Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide (2012 ed.). Douglas & McIntyre. p. 1979. ISBN 9781553658672.
  11. ↑ "Kakaso'las totem pole moved from Stanley Park". CBC News. 2014-09-04. Archived from the original on 2024-09-07. Retrieved 2026-05-04.
  12. ↑ Sun, Bonnie (2024-08-14). "Kakaso'las—Ellen Neel Pole Returns to MOA". Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Archived from the original on 2026-02-12. Retrieved 2026-05-04.
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