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Keeping it local

Grade 8 field trip to Duncan
Leaving straight from Chapel on Tuesday morning, the Grade 8 group travelled to nearby Duncan to explore the downtown area and see some of the many totem poles that have been erected around the city.
 
Duncan is known as “The City of Totems” in honor of an ongoing project to develop one of the world’s largest outdoor collections of publicly displayed totem poles. There are now more than 80 totem poles erected around the city, which serve to represent the close ties between the city of Duncan and the Quw’utsun’ (Cowichan) people and celebrate the unique art form of the totem pole.
 
Totem poles serve variously as signboards, genealogical records and memorials and are emblematic of Coastal Indigenous culture and Northwest Coast Indigenous art.
 
This field trip was a fantastic opportunity for new Shawnigan students to enjoy an excursion away from campus and to learn more about Cowichan culture and the geography of the local area.
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We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.