Felled Cedar will rise again in Stanley Park this summer
6/05/2010 Posted by Shella Skye
A 2,000-year-old western red cedar was cut down for safety reasons in Stanley Park on Friday, June 4, 2010, by renowned aboriginal artist Richard Krentz. It will have new life as art in the first nations Klahowya Village this summer. on the site of the Stanley Park miniature train.
A 15-metre eagle with a belly big enough for people to walk through will be part of Klahowya Village in Stanley Park this summer.
The village is being made out of an ancient cedar tree that was removed Friday from Stanley Park for safety reasons. Artist Richard Krentz is one of the artists awarded a contract to work with the Aboriginal Tourism Association of BC to turn a number of designs into a unique aboriginal cultural experience in Stanley Park from July 1 through to the Labour Day long weekend in September.
When completed, Klahowya Village will include aboriginal food, daily dance performances, a themed train ride, canoe carving and a storytelling circle.
"The outer bark was used for rope and the inner bark for diapers," Krentz said about the importance of cedar to the life of the people of the Northwest Coast. "We used it for bentwood boxes, regalia and medicine. When you died, they put you in a wooden box."
Krentz, an aboriginal artist and tourism businessman, was part of a team at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria that erected Spirit of Lekwammen, the world's tallest totem pole at 55 metres.
Research on tourists has found that they want to experience aboriginal culture but in "bite-sized pieces." Keith Henry, chief executive officer of the aboriginal tourism group, said the AtBC is working with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh to showcase aboriginal cultural tourism throughout July and August.
Henry said Klahowya Village — the word klahowya means welcome in Chinook, the trading language Northwest Coast people used to communicate with one another — is designed to give visitors an authentic first nations tourism experience and to build on aboriginal participation in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
