Woodcarver wearing a baseball cap demonstrates traditional carving techniques to a young observer while working on a wooden totem pole.

A totem pole for Cologne

A partnership with Cowichan First Nations

Our mission

An ordinary arborvitae is transformed into a unique totem pole! In 2013, from 21 August to 5 October, the Cowichan First Nations carved this gift – which holds such great significance for them – for the city of Cologne.

In their tradition, it symbolises a guidepost: it offers protection, strength and wisdom. Over several weeks, a thunderbird, a female bear, a female wolf and two salmon took shape in wood – they represent the close connection between humans and nature.

Since mid-November 2014, the Cologne totem pole has stood in the garden of the Amsterdamer Straße Children’s Hospital. There, it can continually remind all patients, relatives and staff of the natural cycles of life and always serve as a source of encouragement.

This initiative was made possible by the generous support of Globetrotter Cologne.

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Thunderbird and Bear

Canadian master carver Harold Joe from Duncan, Vancouver Island, together with his assistant George Rice, crafted Cologne’s first totem pole from a giant arborvitae tree over 100 years old.

The tree had grown in a forest near Dormagen and had to be felled due to trunk rot. Thanks to the support of the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald (German Forest Conservation Society), the trunk was made available for our project.

Carved totem pole featuring yellow eagle head with red and green eye, black gill details on wooden post.
Over the course of several weeks, the animals took shape on the totem pole. As such, it symbolises the close connection between nature and humankind.

Excerpts from our wildlife blog dated 21 August 2013:

As soon as the two of them start working on the trunk of the beautiful tree, passers-by stop in their tracks and marvel. Many of them pick up a carving knife themselves and, under Uncle Harold’s expert guidance, learn how best to carve the figures they’ve been assigned. Children in particular stop in their tracks, enthralled, and persuade the carving masters to let them have a go themselves. The two Cowichans feel the warmth and enduring interest of the people of Cologne in their work and in the old-growth forests of Canada’s west coast. They are delighted to be able to pass on a piece of their endangered culture in this way and to draw attention to the threat facing the forests of their homeland.
Craftsperson painting a wooden carving with a brush, focused on detailed work on a large wooden sculpture.

Hand holding a paintbrush with red paint, preparing to paint light-colored wood.

Craftsperson chiseling wood with a wooden chisel and mallet, wearing a black shirt and face mask.

Child in blue shirt showing an art project to an older man at an outdoor table event.

Large wooden totem pole with colourful facial features towering over a busy urban plaza with vehicles and pedestrians.

Man wearing black cap carving wood in workshop with wooden blocks and red design elements visible.

Hands working with a wood chisel on a geometric pattern of red and black triangles carved into a wooden surface.

Carved totem pole featuring yellow eagle head with red and green eye, black gill details on wooden post.

Craftsmanship: A person sanding a wooden musical instrument with inlaid black sound hole and coloured sections using sandpaper.

Wooden fish carving with detailed scales and fins sculpted into light wood block

Two craftspeople work on a wooden plank with red and black designs at an outdoor woodworking event.

The ‘A Totem Pole for Cologne’ campaign fills us with pride. Together, we have sent a message in support of forest conservation right in the heart of Cologne’s pedestrian zone. So that no one will soon be asking: ‘Where’s the rainforest?’
Jenin Ziemens Environmental Ambassador

Find out more about the campaign on our blog

We would like to thank all the partners involved:

  • Globetrotter Cologne
  • German Forest Conservation Association
  • Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum
  • Amsterdamer Straße Children’s Hospital
  • and the master carvers, as well as the many volunteers who supported this wonderful carving project over the course of six weeks.

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