Smithers Town Council has voted in favour of becoming a financial partner for the Totem Pole Project at the new Walnut Park Elementary School.
The Town will be providing $100,000 for the totem pole, which will be carved by Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Dziggot also known as Ron Austin.
According to a proposal by School District 54, the land it will occupy has an interesting and complicated history.
It added the pole will share the history and also support reconciliation.
During Tuesday’s (Jun) council meeting a letter was read that expressed the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs support for the project.
Councillor Frank Wray said contributing to the project is a part of the work for reconciliation.
“Seeing the letter from the Office of the Wet’suwet’en I think it would do a lot of damage if we were to not participate. It’s going to be a start towards healing in the community,” he said.
The Totem Pole will reside on a site formerly known as “Indian Town”, from the 1920’s until the 1970’s.
According to the SD54, in the 1930’s a number of Wet’suwet’en residents participated in a tax revolt, fighting for their children to attend public school along with other children of other Smithers taxpayers.
After the revolt the municipalities took away the deeds to their homes and the residents were not provided with services like other Smithers residents.
According to Councillor Greg Brown, the history of Indian Town is connected to the recent news out of Kamloops where 215 children were discovered at a former residential school.
He said the Wet’suwet’en worldview should be present within the community.
“It’s an opportunity for us to work together, to come together to integrate the two worldviews, the Wet’suwet’en worldviews not the dominant one that they used to make, they’re [the Wet’suwet’en] making a recovery,” Brown said.
The estimated cost of the totem pole is $300,000.