Poster of BC Totem Poles

In 1866, the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island were joined to form the new colony of British Columbia. In 1966 the provincial government thought it’d be a great idea to honour the centennial of the union of the colonies by designating a coastal route the Route of the Totems. Several poles were commissioned from significant First Nations artists and shortly afterward they seem to have been forgotten. Some are protected inside buildings now; some are rotting outside; some are gone who knows where. A strange last gasp of unexamined colonialism and simultaneous showcase of important transitional carving.