Totem Poles

The totem poles at Stanley Park are a favorite attraction. Every year thousands of people stop here to take photographs.

You’ll find this area of the park located on a grassy little mound across from Coal Harbour next to the parking lot.

You can’t get right up to them though because there’s a little stream that separates the totems themselves from the viewing area.

Years ago you could walk right up to them and look closely at the art work and understand the amount of work that went into creating them, it obviously took a very long time to create each one using the working tools of that age.

Remember, some of these "messengers of the past" are 20 generations old (and some even older than that!).

Totem poles tell a family's story and marks important events'they are kind of like a family coat-of-arms.

The stories can be either real or mythical in reality they can also be a combination of the two.

An example might be King Arthur and the Lady of the lake...at what point is it history and at what point is it a myth? Hard to say...

Sometimes the bodies of important people were buried and placed in a box near the top of the totem pole.

When you look at these you will notice figures of eagles, whales, wolves and frogs and each one has a meaning.

The eagle represents the kingdom of air, the whale the lordship of the sea, the wolf is the genius of land and the frog is a link between the land and the sea.

Back in the 1880's the First Nations People stopped carving totem poles because the potlatch ceremony where the totems were raised became illegal in Canada. In 1951 this law was reversed and the First Nations began carving them again.

If you want to, you can send your friends an e-mail post-card of these pictures and lots of others by clickinghere then follow the directions!

A little farther on in the park up at Prospect Point you may spot a Native carver there carving totem poles with his chain saw.

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Things To Do	Sights To See	Places To Go

Vancouver's Stanley Park Attractions:

Amphitheatre
Aquarium
Beaches
Brockton Oval
Brockton Point and Lighthouse
Coal Harbour
English Bay
Empress of Japan
General Tips
Girl in Wet Suit
Free Shuttle Bus
Horse Drawn Carriage Ride
Lawn Bowling
Lumbermen's Arch
Hollow Tree
Lost Lagoon
Lions Gate Bridge
Miniature Railway
North Vancouver
Prospect Point
Restaurants in Stanley Park
Seawall
Trade and Convention Centre
Rose Garden
Walking the Seawall
Water park and Playground
Vancouver parking
Vancoover transit