Hidden in plain sight by the Iona Building entrance, the All My Relations pole reveals a quiet yet profound story.
One of the joys of working at UBC is unexpectedly coming across delightful things that you can’t really anticipate.
This happened to me earlier this year when curiously wandering into the fortress-like Iona Building that houses the Vancouver School of Economics, I came across what was then to me an unnamed totem pole (unnamed because there’s no signage).
After asking a VSE employee about the pole’s name, I was sent some information that lead me to discover the following.
The pole is titled All My Relations, and it was designed and carved by Jack (Jackie) La-Sah Timothy from the Sliammon First Nation, near Powell River, B.C.
It’s not clear when it was installed, but in speaking to a former employee of the Vancouver School of Theology, which inhabited the building prior to VSE until 2015, it was likely put up in the early 2000s. Mind you, a story about the pole’s origin, hosted on the VST site, suggests 2004.
The pole is built from White Pine and is 14 feet tall. It has six main figures: Raven holding the moon, Salmon, Frog, Bear, Chief, and Eagle. There are figures in the eyes that depict the “past, present, and future.”
Jackie Timothy (Photo: VPL)
Researching the artist’s background, I discovered Jackie’s biography online, which says in addition to being a master carver, he was a storyteller and cultural presenter and that his traditional name, La-Sah, descended from a hereditary chief lineage.
He was a survivor of the St. Augustine’s Indian Residential School (1904–1975) located in Sechelt, B.C., having been taken there when he was four years old. The bio notes that he “identified strongly with his culture and retained his grandparents’ advice to ‘remember who you are and where you are from,’” and so “endured and succeeded through very difficult times.”
Further research revealed the circumstances of his incarceration in the residential school, specifically that he was “made to stay there for ten years against his will and the will of his family, that the school itself was a prison.”
In spite of this experience, he was described by a colleague after his death in 2021, at age 65, as being “a soft-spoken man with strong conviction to his family and his culture. Love, peace, joy, happiness, and respect for all was the foundation of everything he did.”
After reading this warm tribute, I wasn’t surprised he named his pole All My Relations, a common saying amongst First Nations people, which I was taught is an invocation to the speaker to remember that we exist and operate within a sphere that is filled with all forms of life, including spiritual ones, and that everything we do within it affects the whole of it, and so we must always be mindful of our actions.
Jackie’s other works can be seen at Powell River’s Sea Walk viewpoint, Inland Lake trial, Bliss Landing Estates, and throughout numerous private homes around the Lower Mainland and the world.
Sources
- All My Relations (Vancouver School of Theology)
- Jackie Timothy: 2010 Storyteller in Residence (Vancouver Public Library)
- Jackie Timothy remembered with fondness by Powell River school district (Powell River Peak)
- Remembering Who You Are and Where You Are From: A Sliammon Story (Louise Barnes, Simon Fraser University)
Kevin Ward, Research and Communications Officer, First Nations House of Learning, is a member of the Mikisew Cree First Nation.
Indigenous Outdoor Art Series: Find out where you can view Indigenous art on campus and the story behind each piece by checking out this interactive map.