Thunderbird Park Totem Poles Victoria Vancouver Island BC
Thunderbird Park is one of downtown Victoria’s most extraordinary features, the park’s impressive display of poles and big houses has made it a tourist landmark for nearly 60 years. Thunderbird Park is a park in Victoria, British Columbia next to the Royal British Columbia Museum. The park is home to many totem poles (mostly Gitxsan, Haida, and Kwakwaka'wakw) and other First Nations monuments. Also in the park are a carving studio, St. Anne's Schoolhouse (built 1844), Helmcken House (built in 1852 by Dr. John Helmcken), and Mungo Martin House (Wawadit'la), a traditional Kwakwaka'wakw "big house" built in 1953 by Kwakwaka'wakw Chief Mungo Martin. The park is part of the Royal BC Museum Cultural Precinct, an area around the museum that contains a number of historical sites and monuments. Totem poles were first erected on the site in 1940 as part of a conservation effort to preserve some of the region's rapidly deteriorating Aboriginal art. The site was opened as Thunderbird Park in 1941. By 1951, many of the poles had greatly decayed, and in 1952 the Royal BC Museum began a restoration program with Chief Martin as its head carver. Martin died in 1962 and was succeeded by renowned carver Henry Hunt. Other artists who have worked as part of the program include Henry Hunt's sons Richard Hunt and Tony Hunt, Tim Paul, Lawrence Bell, David Gladstone, David Martin, and Bill Reid. All of the original poles were replaced with new versions by 1992, and some of the originals are now preserved within the museum.
Size: 3733px × 5620px
Location: Thunderbird Park, Victoria, Vancouver Island. British Columbia. Canada.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: america, anthropology, art, artistic, black, canada, carved, cedar, collection, cultural, figures, haida, heritage, historic, history, house, legends, long, myths, north, paint, park, pole, red, scheme, skill, story, style, totem, traditional, victoria, wooden
