As the Langley Memorial Hospital emergency room expansion gets underway, a sacred First Nations art piece is being displaced.
A totem pole, gifted to the hospital by its nurses in 1965, currently stands in the spot where the new emergency room will be built and has to be moved.
Fraser Health originally suggested it be transported to Chemainus on Vancouver Island, as its carver, the late Simon Charlie, was from the Cowichan Band.
But after learning about the totem pole’s unique history, a new plan is being crafted.
“Our Aboriginal Health team is working with the First Nations Health Authority and the Cowichan Tribes to develop a plan to move, store and relocate the totem pole in a respectful and culturally appropriate manner to facilitate the redevelopment and expansion of Langley Memorial Hospital’s emergency department,” a spokesperson from Fraser Health said.
“We recognize that Langley Memorial Hospital sits on the shared, unceded traditional territory of Kwantlen, Katzie, and Matsqui First Nations and we will be looking to those communities to address any local cultural protocols.
“We are looking at alternate locations on the hospital’s campus to relocate the totem pole.
“The Cowichan Tribes have also connected with the sons of the totem pole’s late carver and they will be intimately involved in this planning.”
LMH Heritage Committee member Doris Riedweg said the committee would like to see the pole erected by the stone wall, the only feature that remains from the original 1940s Cottage Hospital.
“The pole was a donation to the hospital from the nurses at the time. It was for the 1965 opening of the south tower, which we called the new building,” she said.
“It has to stay on the hospital ground, simply because it’s now on Kwantlen Nation territory, and so it has to stay here. And also being a gift from the nurses to the hospital, it has to stay on the grounds.”
Members of the committee are meeting with Kwantlen First Nation and Fraser Health representatives next week to discuss a new location.
When the totem pole is moved later this summer, a formal First Nations ceremony will be held.
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