Biography - Original Totem Pole in Stanley Park- Circa 1940                             < Back to Gallery 

Named the “Thunderbird House Post”, this totem pole was carved by Kwakwaka’wakw artist Charlie James and given to the city of Vancouver in the early 1900’s.  Carved from mature cedar trees by native peoples of the Pacific Northwest and originally part of the ‘Potlatch’ ceremony (a feast with deep meaning to coastal first nations), totem poles were carved and raised to represent a family or clan, its kinship systems, its dignity, its accomplishments, prestige, adventures, stories and rights.  A totem pole serves in essence, as the emblem of a family or clan and often as a reminder of its ancestry.