Victory Through Honour Totem Pole – Brock Hall, West Wing, UBC, Vancouver, British Columbia

The year was 1948. The occasion: a UBC Homecoming football game. On October 30 during the half-time intermission, students and sports fans bore witness to the dedication and rise of the late Kwakwaka’wakw artist, Ellen Neel’s Victory Through Honor totem pole. With her husband Edward and respected Chief William Scow at her side, Neel gave the University of British Columbia two special gifts: the totem pole and the permission to use the Thunderbird name and crest for UBC athletic teams.

The pole tells of the five tests of Tsikumin, chief shaman of the Red Cedar Bark Dance and founder of Qui-Owa Sutinuk, ancestors of the carver.