The totem poles of Haide Gwaii

A 19th-century smallpox epidemic and late 19th-century political crackdown devastated the lives and lifeways of indigenous people on this cluster of islands of the western Canadian coast. By the late 20th century, however, the political situation was reversed, and modern carvers began reinvigorating the ancient artform of carving totem poles.

Read

Where Totem Poles are a Living Art (and Relics Rest in Peace)

By Catherine Porter

The New York Times

April 30, 2017