By Radha Agarwal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prince Rupert Northern View Citing a history of cultural faux pas, the Gits’iis Tribe of the Ts’msyen Nation, whose ancestral lands encompass the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre site, is demanding the removal of the three totem poles outside it. “These poles came [to Prince Rupert]. They had no business being here,” said Guu Gaa Jung (Symbia Barnaby). Barnaby, founder of Healing Nation Coaching and Consulting and a traditional helper, was tasked by Gits’iis Na’aa Sigidyem Hana’ak [matriarch] to help facilitate discussions with the City of Prince Rupert regarding the totem poles in question. Barnaby explains that the three poles were uprooted from villages on Haida Gwaii in the 1930s and transported to Prince Rupert (on Ts’msyen territory), where they were erected in places…
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