'Healing House' totem unveiled

An unusual new totem pole is to be unveiled in Sitka today. Instead of relating a tale drawn from history or legend, this pole promotes the contemporary theme of domestic nonviolence.

The 12-foot pole's debut comes in conjunction with National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It was commissioned by the Sitka Tribe of Alaska and will stand at a newly refurbished facility dubbed the "Healing House," headquarters for the tribe's Family Wellness Department and Sitka's Family Justice Center.

According to a press release from the tribe, the pole's message promotes "peaceful homes and communities as we work toward early intervention, treatment and prevention for children exposed to domestic violence. This issue touches everyone."

"It's a really important topic for Alaska, as Alaska ranks among the top five states in the nation for per-capita rates of domestic violence," said Valerie Chambers, the Safe Start coordinator for the tribe's Family Wellness Department.

"Alaska also ranks No. 1 in 'rate of women murdered by men' per capita," she added in an e-mail, "1.5 times the rate of the national average."

The project follows the process used in a previous work, said carver Tommy Joseph.

"We did a pole through the tribe five years ago. It was a 'youth' totem pole, where the kids wrote the story for it and I designed it and we all worked on it together. It stands in front of their high school now."

The success of the youth pole led to the current project, which Tlingit elders have dubbed "K'idein Kusti Kooteeyaa," or the "To Live a Good Life Pole." They solicited ideas from the community, particularly from children, asking them to define "What peace is to me."

Local people responded with poems and pictures that Joseph used for ideas when he designed the pole. With the help of two young assistants, Robert "Allan" Bradley and Nicole Lindoff, he sculpted the pole to include some intriguing nontraditional elements: a dove, a rainbow, a reclining fawn -- "a symbol of peace in Tlingit culture," Joseph said.

At the top, a protective mother holds two children. The mother is done in a "more traditional, old-style carving," Joseph said, "but the kids are more the kids of today," shown in bright, contemporary clothing.

The sculpture is not a free-standing pole, but attached directly to the building.

In addition to the pole, the tribe commissioned two matching sets of traditional regalia for adults and children, including two raven's tail robes woven by Teri Rofkar, two beaded button robes made by Elmanda Miller and a raven's tail apron made by Pauline Duncan. These formal garments will be worn during dances at the unveiling ceremony.