A Negative Relationship In Thomas King's 'Totem'

Totems hold great significance as they represent connections with the land, the Dreamtime and ancestors.

In the short story “Totem” by Thomas King, the relationship between the totem pole and the museum workers is negative. The relationship is depicted as being overpowering, authoritative, and entitled when the workers continually try to remove the totem pole from the museum. Ultimately, the totem pole symbolizes the struggles and perseverance of the Indigenous people in Canada.

In King’s short story, the museum workers are continually trying to remove the totem pole from the museum as Walter, one of these workers, states, “” the totem pole is not part of the

The Tlingit Community House is an example of the totem of Tlingit (Frank, 2014). A symbolic of animal form that is laid out in a two-dimensional abstract pattern, with an extensive gently slanted roof, attractively painted façade (Frank, 2014). The flat surfaces of the Tlingit Community House show geometric shapes of beavers, bears, also whales, and ravens. Furthermore, the totem pole in the center contains stacked images that help a family are a clan to reminisce about their history back to mythological periods (Frank, 2014). Also, the Tlingit community house is characteristic of the art and style of that region (Frank, 2014). However, a totem is an object such as an animal or plant that operates as a symbol of a family or tribe (Frank,

In Mandel’s Station 11, he envisions a time in which civilization is wiped off the face of Earth due to a flu epidemic. The book describes an area called the Museum of Civilization, which is a museum which collects things that have lost their worth since the fall of man. In the event of a collapse, the item best suited for the exhibit at the Museum of Civilization is a dusty baseball mitt. This item is a good candidate for the museum due to all of the history of baseball, which the mitt expresses. Firstly, the mitt will remind people of the pre-epidemic era in which baseball played an integral role.. In addition, the baseball mitt will act as a tool for teaching the post-collapse era children of the previous era. The baseball mitt will serve both as a educational tool and a way of remembering the past.

A symbolic object is a powerful tool that helps communicate meaning. Symbolic objects are created and reused by us humans to help give value to our world. Creating culture and a sense of meaning for humans, a symbolic object is nothing without culture. In other words, culture is a sense of values created through history. This is important because symbolic objects can be used to explain untouched issues settlers of this land created with Indigenous people. Indigenous people are people whom originated from a land, such as Native Americans, that settlers from another country devalue. In the film “Smoke Signals” by Chris Eyre, he expresses how difficult it is being an Indigenous person in the 21st century. In this paper, I will explain how a

Leila Aboulela writes “The Museum” in a way that can make the reader feel like they are connected and present with the characters. Held in a prestigious university in Scotland, the University of Aberdeen, “The Museum” highlights many difficult challenges that can be faced in a lifetime, and that makes the story even more relatable. Leila Aboulela really knows how to capture her readers, which makes her story so memorable. Aboulela uses explicit adjectives to describe common things that advance the story even more. For example the reoccuring color blue on page 372 that evokes the sad feeling that Shadia develops throughout the story.

Most totem poles display beings, or crest animals, marking a family’s lineage and validating the powerful rights and privileges that the family held. Totem poles would not necessarily tell a story so much as it would serve to document stories and histories familiar to community members or particular family or clan members.

The crest on a pole is the most important part of the pole because it tells who the specific family or tribe is. Each family had their own unique crest that would have been been passed down from generation to generation, to the native people of Early American the family crest was more than just a symbol like it is today. The crest was a honourable thing, people would fight and die for their crest. The crest can be anything from carved stone to a waved basket. Eagles are the most common symbol for totem poles and crests because they were considered to be medicine birds also were considered to have very powerful magic abilities. Totem poles were not just used to honor someone, they could also be used as a way to shame someone or a whole tribe. A shame pole would be set up in the center of a tribe if it is to shame a specific person. They were used to expose another person or tribe for something disgraceful they

To Native Americans, some of the objects were “created by their makers with the intent that the objects would disintegrate naturally,” so it is wrong to try to preserve those objects (67). Moreover, Native Americans think that if the objects were to be return to them, then it is not right for museums to tell them how to take care of the objects (72). A successful protest, for example, is the protest against exhibits that were being set up in celebration of Columbus Quincentenary. While Columbus is view as “hero” in many American’s eyes, he left Native Americans with a painful memory of enslaving and the bad treatment from the Colonists. In protesting to stop the celebration, protestors also hoped to re-educate the public about Columbus’ arrival in the Natives’ point of view (109-113). Due to these protests, many exhibitions were canceled. The exhibition, Seed of Change at the National Museum of Natural History tried to avoid the discussion of Columbus by focusing on things rather than people (117).

Throughout the experience, I learned the importance and care of working with an artifact along with operations within a museum. As I toured Heartland Museum, I witnessed all of the items that are stored behind the scenes because museums only keep a small percentage of the belongings on display. I also learned about the process of creating a display, which includes piecing together many details like attraction, relevance, and of course history. Museums must worry about the community’s interest in the displays. Lastly, I learned about the importance of an artifact by working with some of the items. It is important to handle artifacts with care because of the fragility of the item. After the information I learned at the museum, it was my turn to experience the public

This decision held some controversy, as many patrons wanted to experience the knitted glory throughout the whole year, but the Institute made the decision to make itself a tradition within the community, so that Portland locals may visit the museum once or twice a year and experience it all over again. This idea comes from Carol Duncan’s 1995 book, Creating Rituals, where she compares the action of visiting a museum to that of a religious ritual , giving two examples of “the achievement of a marked-off, ‘liminal’ zone of time and space… [and] …the organization of the museum setting as a kind of script or scenario… ” Using this model, the Institute devised a way that would help bring back returning customers each year: the cycling of our collection. By doing this action, the museum sets itself up for a “liminal zone” as we allow patrons to escape their daily lives, and give them reason to do so, such as the new collection. With this method we also built the scenario of tradition, as the Institute becomes the “must-see” every holiday

She took these typically invisible, behind-the-scenes, unvalued processes, and brought them into the light. She made, what she called, a, “life process of the museum visible.” And she assigned it cultural value, giving value to the labor and the laborers who keep it clean, who keep it safe—just like a mother. She took this notion of life process from her home to the museum (transition to other things—jewishness—she brought from her home)

Everyday I try to be as present as possible in everything that I do. As my eyes and mind finished taking in all the light touched, I began to notice what lurked in the shadows- a headless statue, parts of pillars deteriorating, and small imperfections. I did not remember this from the first time I visited the museum, which I feel shows the loss of innocence that comes with growing up. Even though when I first noticed them a sense of melancholy threatened to take away from the original serenity that I felt, I then began to find the beauty in the shadows. I always try to find the positive points in negative situations and find the beauty in what may not seem beautiful at first glance. As I looked closer at the headless statue and worn pillars I found myself imagining the stories behind them. Thinking of the hands and eyes they have touched over hundreds of years made me once again realize the beauty even in the darkest of the shadows. Even though we may lose some of our innocence as we age, we are also often less afraid of the shadows, and we are willing to walk towards them and find that what

In Source A, Rockfeller addresses two core issues for museums to recognize. The two key problems that “threatened the instruction” were both “money and management.” With Rockefeller as a primary financial donor for the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, he yearned for his money to be used wisely. This restoration reflected the problematic nature of “a poor management structure.” Less outstanding pieces of art were chosen. The purpose of this memoir was to advocate for the severe need for productive management for a museum to run smoothly and secure wanted art pieces and