Did you know that there’s an official manual published by the BC government, explaining how to identify and describe culturally modified trees? (If you’re not sure what those are, see Gabriolan’s past post on the subject, Gabriola’s culturally modified trees.) You can download the guide (as a honking big pdf of more than 38 megs, [...]
Filed in First Nations,Gabriola Island,history 3 Comments so far
Here’s an odd-looking cedar tree in the middle of the Gabriola forest. What has made the bark do that weird bumpy thing? Oh wait, look around the side. (Second photo.) Looks like the bark has been very deliberately cut. I know about Gabriola’s culturally modified trees, which are trees from which bark was removed for [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,native plants Comments Off
By now I’ve seen hundreds of culturally modified trees on Gabriola; this is the only one I’ve come across that includes graffiti. The letters seem to be carved into the wood, and then painted — who would go to all that work? And what does it mean?
You know that BC First Nations people used cedar for all sort of things: canoes, housing, masks, clothing, blankets, baskets, totem poles, and probably lots of other purposes as well. The Snuneymuxw (Nanaimo Coast Salish) on Gabriola were no exception. Sometimes they took an entire cedar tree, but other times they just took part of [...]
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