The Whaling Monument at Port Alberni’s Victoria Quay is being reassembled in its new home along the river.
The 30-foot red and yellow cedar whaling canoe was previously set up in a shed at the Victoria Quay. The shed was originally built as a place for carving the welcome figures that now stand nearby.
The original shed, designed by architect Scott Kent in the early 2000s, was only meant to be a temporary home for the whaling monument, but years went by and the piece remained in the open structure.
Over the years, damage occurred to the carving shed creating a need for a new and permanent structure for the large whaling canoe.
Artist Rodney Sayers from the Hupacasath First Nation, who carved the welcoming figures with Cecil Dawson, is tasked with putting the whaling monument back together after it was moved from the carving shed to its newly built home.
“The shed is in need of repair, it was never meant to be a permanent structure or a permanent home for the whaling monument. Hupacasath, in discussions with the City of Port Alberni, set out on this project to build this new building to house [the monument] and preserve it,” Sayers said. “The task has fallen to me (to rebuild) because I was the one who put it together originally when it came.”
The large piece, depicting Nuu-chah-nulth whalers pursuing a California gray whale, was created by Vancouver artist Lionel Thomas. Based on Thomas’ diorama, the actual carving was done by First Nations artists Godfrey Hunt and Douglas Cramner. It was repatriated from the Royal B.C. Museum and set up at the Victoria Quay in 2005.
The red cedar canoe is five feet wide and contains carved replicas of traditional equipment like floats, lances, a rope tackle box, bailer, paddles and harpoons. The eight warriors depicted were modeled after real-life Nuu-chah-nulth figures and are carved in yellow cedar.
Sayers said moving and reassembling the large monument is a time-consuming task.
“It’s a very slow process because each piece has to be precisely placed,” Sayers said. “The base is made out of 14 separate slices, so each piece of the base is one long piece that are pushed together.”
Sayers said there has been some “bumps and bruises” to the carving from crews moving it which he has been fixing with epoxy resin.
In addition to the new structure for the monument, other improvements are happening at Victoria Quay including landscaping, new lighting around the monument, welcome figures and boardwalk, as well as new bathrooms.
The two new automated washrooms were gifted to the City of Port Alberni from the City of Calgary.
Pat Deakin, economic development manager with the City of Port Alberni, said new parking spaces will also be added to the area.
Deakin said the funding for the updates came from the Time Immemorial grant through the B.C. government. The grant total was $148,000, with more than $40,000 going towards installing the washrooms.
