Arts Development took the idea to local people and staff at the Seaton Community Project where there was a lot of enthusiasm for the project to happen in Seaton. Kenny, Xwa-Lack-Tun and Splash came to visit Seaton Community Project and Seaton School in April to involve local people in guided drawing sessions and to gauge interest in a summer totem pole event.
With local people on board we began planning the project and managed to source funding from:
The Aberdeen Countryside Project (now Aberdeen Green Space)
The Community Regeneration Fund
Forestry Commission, who supplied us with the 20ft Douglas Fir.
In preparation for designing the pole, Arts Development and Seaton Community project staff took groups out to visit poles carved at Bennachie and to see how their pole reflected it’s surroundings.
The Totem Pole Project took place at Seaton Community Project and ran for a week at the end of August. It included activities for all ages; in addition to the carving there were after school workshops and making jewellery inspired by First Nation artwork. The whole of Seaton School got involved and visited the pole to inspect progress and meet Xwa-Lack-Tun, Jada, James and Kenny. The Arts Development team worked with the school to create a ceramic Pictish Pole which has the same imagery as the totem pole but was inspired by symbols found on Pictish standing stones.
The week’s activities kicked off with the Open Ceremony, where the tree was blessed and cleansed. Xwa-Lack-Tun and the Arts Development team got everyone drawing and after a creative spell and some discussion we had the final design for the pole which encompassed elements from the local environment around Seaton. During this initial meeting we all learned a great deal about the First Nation culture especially their spirituality and the great respect they have for one another and the living environment. After the ceremony everyone helped strip the bark off the tree and the design was then penned onto the wood ready for the carving to start the next day.
The carving went on throughout the day and into the evening, attracting all ages, many people who already use the centre as well as new people came along to take part, anyone who visited the centre that week did not leave without getting involved in some way. The Seaton Community project staff, now all fairly competent at woodcarving, were always on hand to support and encourage potential carvers.
On the Saturday night, the first Seaton Community Ceilidh was held at the East End Social Club. Local young people who attend the Seaton Music Project performed; The Randoms, guitar based group, and the girl’s singing group both performed along side musician Sharon Hassan and her ceilidh band. To end the night, Xwa-Lack-Tun and family set to the stage and had us all dancing to their drumming and song.
The week went passed really fast and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves digging a 5’6” deep hole and rolling the pole (on a trolley) down Seaton Road, stopping traffic and attracting lots of attention. The next step was to lift up the totem pole, which weighted over a ton, using a system of ropes. Kenny informed us we would require at least 100 strong people to erect the pole. It wasn’t too long before lots of Seaton’s strongest people gathered along with lots of Seaton’s smaller people at the corner. Xwa-Lack-Tun doned his ceremonial robes and began the pole raising ceremony, the ground was blessed and an offering was given to Mother Earth, the pole was then cleansed using burning sage. Jada and the newly adopted Family made up of Seaton Community project and Arts Development staff, moved round the pole, making sweeping movements while Xwa-Lack-Tun, Kenny and James played on drums and sang. Next Xwa-Lack-Tun choose witnesses from the crowd, these witnesses were people with a local connection who will continue to look after the pole. Each witness was given an offering and asked to say something about the pole and their experience of working on it. One of the witnesses, the local police officer said, “this is the best example of community spirit I have ever seen in Seaton”.
There was then a call for all able adults to take an end of one of the three ropes and wait for instructions. With a little bit physical effort the pole was vertical, there was a cheer from the crowd. A team of men quickly started filling the hole with pieces of granite, then shovelling back and compacting the soil. The pole went up so quickly that we had forgotten to re-attach the individually carved seagull to go on the top, it had been taken off to save it from damage, when lifting the pole off its trolley. With the pole erected the puzzle was now how to attach the seagull on to its 15ft perch. There were offers from local people in the scaffolding trade, and from young people making a bid to scale the pole. During these discussions the police officer had been on the phone to the fire service with in half and hour they were in Seaton with their aerial platform and again there was a cheer from the crowd as the seagull, Johnathon Livingstone, was placed on top of the pole where is belonged.The pole looked amazing, and seemed to appear far taller than it looked when laid flat all week. Everyone seemed impressed and uplifted by their contribution to the pole and it was great to get such a mix of local people out in the street and involved in the project. One lady went back to her flat to get a bucket of hot soapy water to wipe off some earth from the pole, while others stomped to compact the soil. Once the ground was restored we headed back to the Community Project to end the weeks events with some refreshments.
Part of the success of the totem pole project was that people were involved in every aspect of the project and could get involved at any stage. This was a great project to be part of and it continues to enthuse both the community and staff. As a result of the Seaton Totem Pole word spread to Orkney via through community worker in Seaton Lynn Foubister. The village of Holm in Orkney were very interested in joining the network of Scottish Totem Poles. A year later the newly formed Seaton Art & History Group were invited by the Holm community to join them in the celebrations and erection of their own Totem Pole. It was a great honour to be invited and we were made very welcome and it was great to meet with Kenny and Xwa-Lack-Tun again.
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