Cedar Man: The Totem Pole That Defined a 1980s Protest Movement
Totem poles typically are raised as memorials, as indicators of status or identity, as house entries, and as welcome figures. They are not typically raised as protest figures. Cedar Man, produced in 1984 by Tla-o-qui-aht artist Joe David, turned the notion of a totem pole as a welcome figure - greeting guests or visitors to the home – on its head. We learned about Cedar Man on our visit to the wonderful Museum of Anthropology, part of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
The message for logging company MacMillan Bloedel from this totem pole was that it was not welcome to come to Meares Island, part of the Tla-o-qui-aht homeland indiscriminately to clear cut 90% of the forest.
The forest still stands today on the pacific shore of Vancouver Island near Tofino, and part of the reason is Cedar Man. Standing almost 2 stories tall, Cedar Man helped galvanize a First Nations’ protest movement that included a rally of 1,200 in front of British Columbia’s legislature in Victoria with Cedar Man there too. A massive multi-year protest movement followed, called the War in the Woods. It included what is said to be the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, when more than 900 were arrested over 3 months for blocking the logging roads. Most were convicted and many served time in jail and paid fines.
The huge inflatable rat that the building trades unions and others bring to protests is, perhaps, our version of Cedar Man. Doesn’t seem the same, somehow.
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| Cedar Man at the BC Parliament in Victoria, 1984. Cedar Man is now on display at the University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver |
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A later protest |
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| Cedarman in Museum of Anthropology at UBC |
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| Location of First Nation's territory, Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. |
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