Uncle Harold Joe and George Rice from Duncan on Vancouver Island, Canada, have been working on a totem pole for Cologne since last Thursday.
As we reported from the last school expedition to Duncan, the city of totem poles, only giant thuja trees are used for this purpose. The tree trunk for Cologne comes from an experimental forest near Dormagen, close to Cologne, where it was planted around 150 years ago along with five others. Following a forest fire some 56 years later, the trunk began to rot, which is why the tree had to be felled this year. It stood at a total height of almost 32 metres with a diameter of 85 cm. Eight metres of the trunk can and will be used for the totem pole. The tree was debarked and sawn whilst still in the forest. The bast, which is used for weaving, was set aside in a bathtub at the Globetrotter branch to preserve the flexibility of the inner bark until it is woven.
On Thursday evening, the tree and the bast were transported by lorry from the Dormagen forest directly to the front of the Globetrotter branch. Using a roller construction specially made for the creation of the totem pole, the trunk can now be worked on by the Cowichan woodcarvers over the coming weeks.
A totem pole for the city of Cologne will be completed by 5 October. Harold Joe has already given us a glimpse of what the totem pole will look like. It will be crowned by a thunderbird standing on a black bear holding a salmon in her paws, beneath which lies a she-wolf. The orca, which is very commonly depicted on totem poles, is not to be found on the Cologne totem pole, as there is no salt water in the vicinity of the city. Furthermore, only female orcas are featured, as the tree itself is also a female specimen.
We’ll be reporting on the progress of the work and are enjoying the evening at a hidden children’s playground in Cologne with some old trees from which bats are now setting off to hunt as dusk falls.
Text & photo: Miriam and Brigitte Heyduck