In 2012, the Nuyumbalees Cultural Centre in Cape Mudge, where Brad’s father, Don, was President, began negotiating with the National Museum of History for the return of the house posts. With the idea that they could offer replica totems to the museum as part of the negotiations, Brad and his friend Ted McKellar began carving reproductions. In 2015, Brad travelled to Ottawa to take photos and measurements of some of the intricate details of the posts. While there, he was asked why the community didn’t raise the replicas instead of exchanging them for the originals.

 

As Brad explained in his chapter of the book Knowledge Within: Treasures of the West Coast, “Billy Assu believed in the power and beauty of our traditions and culture and the important role both of these things play in creating a healthy, balanced, and prosperous community for everyone. To leave his poles in Ottawa was akin to ignoring his strength and resolve.”

 

Before Brad left Ottawa, the museum determined that it would return the house posts to the We Wai Kai, and the posts were repatriated in 2015. The museum declined the offer of the replicas, and Brad decided to donate them to the School. 

 

In September 2025, Indigenous students from Shawnigan travelled to Quadra Island, accompanied by woodworking instructor Mr. Declan Bartlett and archivist and curator Mrs. Sarah Teunis-Russ to officially accept the posts and accompany them back to the School. At that point, the poles were about 90 percent finished, and Brad began working to complete them alongside members of the Shawnigan community.

 

Brynn H. was part of the group that went to Quadra Island to receive the posts, and was deeply invested in the process of completing them, which continued up until a few days before they were raised. Over the months, she developed a close relationship with Brad and his family, and they became close with her family. She also helped Brad and Shawnigan staff members create the unveiling ceremony and organize moving the poles, which took nine hours and involved members of the rugby and rowing teams, as well as other students who wanted to be part of it. Members of Brad’s family travelled from across the Pacific Northwest to attend the ceremony.

Another student, Kalissa S., carved a smaller welcome pole under Brad's guidance, and that was also on display at last Friday's ceremony.

 

Brynn is Indigenous – her father is Muskoday from Saskatchewan, and her mom is Métis, also from Saskatchewan – and while her ancestral background is from the prairies, she grew up on Vancouver Island and has taken extensive steps to learn about the Indigenous people of Vancouver Island, including the local Coast Salish nations, and is learning the Hul’qumi’num language.

 

Last Friday’s ceremony was particularly poignant for Brynn.

 

“To see them up was kind of the end of a chapter,” she said. “It was the defining moment of my Grade 12 year. It’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. With the timing of it, with Grad coming up, it was very emotional knowing that my Shawnigan Journey was coming to an end. The most emotional part of it is being part of a legacy that isn’t just my own; I live in the legacy of the leaders who came before me, and I’m passing that on to younger students.”