Sort of a hike

After promising to take some photos of the Residential School Memorial Pole raising, a couple of over-the-hill hikers headed to Old Massett for the event with a new international member, Nelly from Belgium.

We got to Old Massett and headed out to the pole, but we were unsure where it was to be raised ... seeing no obvious place we headed to the pole building site ... and there, were about 8 eager carvers and several onlookers all working diligently ... but the pole was definitely not finished!

So we took our fair share of photos and decided to head out towards to cemetery ... which was a wonderful decision as we drove slowly through the Village and out to beyond the cemetery where we went beach hiking ... on a gorgeous day [one of a very few this summer so far].

After an hour of so we decided to check back in to the pole before heading back ... this time nothing seemed to have changed so we headed for home saying how we really enjoyed seeing the work done on the pole probably even more than an actual raising.

addendum:
The next evening while viewing the HG Musum's Ulli Steltzer Show we happened to hear from Jim Hart that they had indeed raised the pole unfinished at about 10:30 that night!
Gitsga, who worked on it on the raising day, explained that they would have to build a scaffolding to finish it!

So perhaps it all comes together as the residential school recovery is also an on-going process.
Thanks to all the carvers who so generously shared their work space and conversations with us.