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Cultural Context

status; memorial

Narrative

In 1949, Mungo Martin left his home community of Tsaxis (Fort Rupert) to work at UBC on a four-year project to restore old totem poles (including A50037, A50038), and to carve two new memorial poles with his family’s crest figures (including A50035, now inside the museum). The figures Martin chose represent crests to which he had ancestral rights, with this pole commemorating Chief Kalilix, the head of his family line.

Description

Chief Kalilix memorial pole. Carved crest figures, from top to bottom, of Thunderbird, Chief, Raven, Killer whale and another Chief.

History Of Use

Memorial pole of Chief Kalilix. This pole honoured Mungo Martin's father’s maternal grandfather, who was noted for having given the largest potlatch of his time at Fort Rupert. Free standing totem poles such as this were usually memorial or commemorative poles erected in honour of a person who had died, usually by the successor to his name. The beings represented on Kwakwaka'wakw totem poles are those beings from mythical times who became, or were encountered by, the ancestors of those being commemorated, whose family claimed the figures as crests. Crests could also be obtained as marriage gifts.