They pay homage to all Indigenous Nations in Canada, are a reminder of the Vancouver School District’s commitment to the First Peoples -- and honour truth and reconciliation. For one year now, a Reconciliation Pole standing 44 feet tall and two 20-foot tall Welcome Figures have soared upward, on the lawn of the Vancouver School Board Education Centre. In advance of National Indigenous Peoples Day, the District is sharing learnings and actions aimed at working toward reconciliation. An important piece of that journey is the creation of the three pieces, and their ongoing legacy. 

The Reconciliation Pole and two Welcome Figures (one male and one female) were a vision received by Indigenous Education Teacher Davita Marsden, an Anishinaabe kwe. The project was also a dream for Chas Desjarlais, a nehiyaw/Metis, district principal of Indigenous Education. Jody Langlois, associate superintendent threw her support behind the idea, and the work began to make it a reality. Western red cedar logs – each between 300 and 500 years -- were selected from the Squamish Territory, and six Indigenous artists worked to transform them into symbols that serve as reminders of strength, connection and welcome for visitors to the unceded Musqueam land on which they will stand for generations to come.

Together the collection of three pieces are a national first for a public school district. And while the pieces were much celebrated on National Indigenous Peoples Day in 2019, the work is not over yet. The second – and final phase -- is underway, and will continue through the summer.  

William Dan, who worked with his son, Eric, to create the male Welcome Figure installed a backing on it, providing a uniform look between the two figures and the Reconciliation Pole, as well as protecting the integrity of the wood. A pathway will soon run from 10^th Avenue, around the poles to nearly the bottom of the steps leading to the doors of the VSB Education Centre. 

“So as they come to the Board, they walk through the Welcome Figures, because the Welcome Figures are welcoming them to the District,” Desjarlais describes. “We also have stones that have already been cut. I went up to Squamish maybe three months ago, and picked out the stones with Davita Marsden … They’re basalt stone columns, and they stand about three feet high. And so, I really wanted to keep with the organic, naturalness of what the whole project was about – honouring Mother Earth and place …The stones are grounding for many Indigenous people,” she adds. 

Four stones were laser cut to make flat, diagonal surfaces, where copper plaques will be set, explaining the project’s vision, the purpose and intent behind bringing these pieces to the District. 

“I know for eastern Nations – in specific for the Anishinaabe people –  copper is medicinal and it has healing properties, so that’s why we chose copper plaques, so that when people come, and because this project was about reconciliation and bringing all Nations together, we felt that copper was appropriate for the people. When they come to look at the plaques and read them and touch them, they would feel that energy of the healing from the plaques themselves,” Desjarlais explains. 

The last piece completing the project will be LED lighting, likely placed about ten feet in front of the poles. The lights will shine up, directly onto what they will be highlighting: symbols that honour the land, the past and the generations that will lead us into the future.