Kwakwaka’wakw artist Lou-ann Neel has been reunited with a rough cut of a model totem pole carved almost 100 years ago by her grandmother, Ellen Neel.
Ellen Neel was an accomplished carver, running Totem Arts Studio in White Rock, B.C. in the 1940s and 1950s. She carved iconic poles in Vancouver's Stanley Park and at the University of British Columbia, as well as numerous other totem pole commissions from around the world including Denmark, Korea, England, Australia and the United States.
The story of the carving being returned to the Neel family began in 2002. Peter Patershuk, a resident of northern Alberta, was gifted a carving by a colleague who had obtained it from his father, a former worker for the Hudson’s Bay Company on Vancouver Island in the early 1990s.
In October 2023, Patershuk approached Nakkita Trimble-Wilson, a Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art instructor and program coordinator with the hope she would know what to do with it. Trimble-Wilson wanted to ensure the carving was returned to the artist’s family.
A small handwritten note helped Trimble-Wilson and program officer Kelli Louie determine the carver was Ellen Neel, and the pole was carved around 1930 when Ellen would have been 15 years old.
In February 2024, Lou-ann received her grandmother's carving at the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art where she spoke to students about her history, career, family, and grandmother.
Lou-ann was three years old when her grandmother died, but she says her grandmother has played an important role in her path as an artist.
“Everything I’ve done since I found out about my grandmother has been a very conscious effort to continue what she started," Lou-ann said. "She was not only a carver when many believed that women were not allowed to carve, she was also a respected advocate and spokesperson for the rights of First Nations artists."
Lou-ann hopes that First Nations women who dream about carving but keep their dreams quiet can live out their dreams.
"I go far, far away," she said, referring to the energy that carvers feel when they carve. "We call it the zone."
When she held her grandmother's carving in her hands, she said she felt as if her grandmother was sitting beside her. Hugging it close to her, she added she felt like the lessons she received early on were starting to come back to her.
Through her studio, Ellen Neel trained her children, many relatives, and family friend Phil Nuytten, author of The Totem Carvers.
"It's a beautiful treasure," she said. "Treasure in the rough, I'm going to start calling it now."
Ellen Neel, Freda Diesing, and the generations of female carvers to follow will be recognized in the upcoming exhibition, “Curve! Women Carvers of the Northwest Coast,” this November 2024 at the Audain Museum in Whistler, B.C.
