Totem Poles Art Appreciation Spring 2019 Talking Points
1. Totem Poles- Art and Culture • What do you see here? What do you think these are? • Totem poles are giant sculptures that tell a story or share information about the people or tribes who carved them • Who do you think the speaker is talking about in this quote; who is part of ‘our society’ or who would have made these totem poles? • Today we will explore totem poles as works of art and see what they tell us about Native American culture • Look carefully at this picture; where do you think this is?
2. Who built Totem Poles & where are they? • Created by the Native Americans of the Northwest coast of America and Canada, known as the Pacific Northwest. If you look at the red box it shows this region on our continent • People often believe that all Native Americans made totem poles but they were made primarily by Native Americans of the Northwest coast • What do you notice about this photograph? When do you think this photo was taken? What makes you guess that? • There’s evidence that some totem poles were created more than 500 years ago. However, most were created in the mid-1800s when Native Americans were celebrating their wealth from the fur trade.
3. Why were Totem Poles built? • Why do you think Pacific Native Americans built totem poles? • Totem poles are works of art or monuments that were made to represent ancestry, people or events • Specifically, what purposes do you think they serve? • Tell the life story of an important person such as a village chief • Explain a legend; Native Americans used legends to explain how the world and the creatures in it came to be • Commemorate historic events such as a battle • Serve as a tombstone to honor the dead • Serve as a house support (seen here as part of the house) • Identify ownership of a house or body of water (seen here in front of a house to indicate the related people or clan living inside, almost like a family crest) • Shame poles- carve someone upside down to publicly shame him
4. Animal Carvings Has anyone ever been to the Pacific Northwest? What kind of animals are there? Bears, whales, salmon, hawks, wolves, beavers, eagles, owls • What animals do you see here? • Why do you think many totem poles have animals on them? • Native American families identified with certain the characteristics of animals and they used these animals to represent themselves. • Can you think of how other families might represent themselves; coat of arms, family crest, flags
5. Decoding Totem Poles • For Native Americans, each animal is an important symbol of the story or legend • We couldn’t just ‘read’ a totem pole; need to understand what the symbols mean to Native Americans in order to understand it • What animals do you see here? • Bear, salmon • By looking at this ‘key’, we can see what this totem pole signifies • Have you noticed that all of these animal figures are drawn in a similar manner? How would you describe the look of the animals? What are the predominant features, shapes, and colors that you see? • Artists follow standard forms in carving animals so that totem poles have a consistent style • The “ Formline ” is the main line that outlines body parts, usually made in black. • The “Ovoid” (a rounded rectangle) is the most dominant shape in Pacific NW art. U shapes and S shapes are also prevalent.
6. How were they created? • Compare the old and new photos of artists carving the totem poles • The process looks the same • What tools do you think they use? What tools do you think they used before Europeans settled in America (shells, antlers, wood, bone, stone, beaver teeth)? How about after (iron tools)? • Carvers were very important people who were highly respected • Training began in childhood • Could take up to 2 years to carve a totem pole. During this time, carvers often lived with their patrons learning the legends of their families • In addition to carving, they made the paints out of minerals, fish oil or salmon eggs, and then painted the totem poles • Carved out of giant cedar or redwood trees of the region • Trees were about 30-40 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter • Before tree is harvested, artists perform a ceremony of respect and gratitude in honor of the tree • ‘Each tree is like a human being; it has its own personality and uniqueness’
7. Raising a Totem Pole • Erected by men with ropes and pulleys, not by machines • People gather for a large celebration known as a potlatch to commemorate the raising of the totem pole • How do you think they remain standing? • When they were trees, they had roots that spread underground to keep them stable, how do totem poles stands without the roots (large stake attached and buried deep into ground) • They stand for an average of 50-60 years before they collapse or are taken down for safety reasons; they are left to rot naturally
Make your own • Now it’s time for you to make your own totem pole • What animals will you use to tell your story?
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