ManitobaA First Nation artist who spent months carving out a totem pole to tell a story about Canada’s residential school system says the structure can be repaired after it was cracked during a storm in Winnipeg earlier this week.The totem pole in Winnipeg’s Assisniboine Park was damaged in a stormCharles Joseph, who carved the totem pole that was recently damaged during a storm in Winnipeg’s Assisniboine Park, says he is determined to repair it, so its message on residential schools can live on. (Prabhjot Singh/CBC)A First Nation artist who spent months carving a totem pole to tell a story about Canada’s residential school system said he’s determined to fix the structure, after it was damaged during a storm in Winnipeg earlier this week.”We built the pole to have people understand the truth of what happened in our dark past, and I’ll be certain to repair [it],” Charles Joseph said, adding he hopes it will last for a 1,000 years. Joseph, a residential school survivor who is from Kwakiutl First Nation, about 490 kilometres northwest of Victoria, spent months putting in 14-hour days at his mom’s house to transform a red cedar tree into one of the biggest works of art he’s ever made. “You don’t see this kind of totem pole being made on an everyday basis, it was a massive production,” the artist said speaking to CBC from Williams Lake, about 320 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. The totem pole, which was built almost a decade ago, was displayed in Toronto and Montreal, before it was gifted to the Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO), and raised in Winnipeg’s Assisniboine Park in Sept. 2022. The SCO represents 32 First Nations and more than 87,000 citizens in what is now called southern Manitoba,B.C. artist Charles Joseph said the damaged section of the pole could possibly be cut off and replaced with a new one that keeps the original design. (Charles Joseph/Facebook)The pole was damaged during a storm that clobbered southern Manitoba on Wednesday night. A spokesperson for the park told CBC News it is suspected a lightning strike hit the 21-metre structure — cracking a section at the top in two parts. While the pole is still standing, the area around it was fenced off for safety reasons. The park spokesperson said the SCO has been notified and together they are working on assessing the damage and the structure’s integrity.Joseph, who has been working for more than 30 years carving wood, said no other totem pole he has built has been damaged like this during a storm. “I was shocked and surprised that lightning would hit it,” he said.Damage ‘heartbreaking’ The totem pole has to be lowered, stored in a facility and filmed in detail, so Joseph can assess the damage. He may be able to carve a new section and attach it to the pole. However, if there’s internal damage, like a crack not visible from the surface, Joseph said he would have to do a larger repair to prevent it from breaking. It would be a bigger problem that would take longer to fix and still leave the totem pole fragile. But Joseph said he is determined to restore it no matter how much time he needs to spend working on it. “It’s important because of the story that belongs to this pole, it’s not just mine, it’s all of the residential survivors across Canada,” he said. Assiniboine Park says it is working with the Southern Chiefs Organization to coordinate an assessment of the damaged totem pole. (Prabhjot Singh/CBC)Joseph was stripped away from his First Nation and forced to attend residential school in Alert Bay, B.C., when he turned five years old. He went to the Anglican church run school until he was 13 years old. His experience is carved into the pole. Read from top to bottom, it starts with the figure of a woman holding children, symbolizing the mothers who got to welcome their kids after residential school. Then there is a whale in memory of the children who never returned home. A raven with a depiction of a preacher and a nun on each side speaks to the pain residential schools inflicted on children, Joseph said. The top part, which was damaged during the storm, represented Joseph’s origin as a First Nation wood craver through the shape of a bird placed at the top of the structure symbolizing how he rose from his past in residential schools.”I wanted people in the world to know the truth of what happened there because I’m a survivor,” he said. The SCO said in a statement it is “heartbreaking” the pole was damaged by the storm and they are working with the artist and a structural engineer to determine next steps, in hopes the totem pole will continue to be a reminder of the lives lost and forever changed in residential schools. The pole is expected to eventually be relocated at Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn development project at the former Hudson’s Bay building in downtown Winnipeg, SCO said. Joseph said he expects to learn more about the damage in the coming days. “I just want the truth to still be out there,” he said of the totem pole and its message.ABOUT THE AUTHORSantiago Arias Orozco is a journalist with CBC Manitoba currently based in Winnipeg. He previously worked for CBC Toronto and the Toronto Star. You can reach him at santiago.arias.orozco@cbc.ca.
Carver Charles Joseph determined to fix totem pole so it can be a reminder of Canada’s residential schools
