Totem: The Return of the G’psgolox Pole
In 1929, the Haisla people of British Columbia returned from a fishing trip to find their tribe’s nine-metre mortuary pole — otherwise known as the G’psgolox — missing, severed at the base. The pole’s fate was a mystery for over 60 years until it surfaced in a Stockholm museum, where members of the Haisla Nation journeyed to in order to get it back in 1991.
Mixing interviews, location photography and awesome footage of Haisla carvers, this unique documentary takes an incredible story and weaves in important commentary on the issue of cultural appropriation and art history.
Director
Gil Cardinal (Métis)
Cardinal was a groundbreaking filmmaker whose body of work includes NFB documentaries such as Foster Child, The Spirit Within and Totem: the Return of the G’psgolox Pole, for which he won the Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award at imagineNATIVE. He also directed episodes of television series such as North of 60, Big Bear, Chiefs, and Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis. Cardinal received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Film and Television.
Writer
Gil Cardinal (Métis)
Producers
Jerry Krepakevich, Graydon McCrea, Bonnie Thompson
Genre
Documentary
Interests
BIPOC Stories, Environment, Global Experiences, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English