Vancouver Island passions

This story first appeared in the summer of 2005. A few years later, Luna the Killer whale, was killed in a collision with a tugboat. It is a sad story...

Carving by Doug LaFortune © City of Duncan Photo by Ron Greenaway

It was a small totem tour, only two visitors, probably in their twenties, who said, when introducing themselves, they were from Japan. They were, as I was later told, attending a university in Kamloops and studying English and Journalism.

We were well into the tour and I was telling them about a totem pole carved by Doug LaFortune. It shows an Eagle above a Killer Whale. In the fluke of the Killer Whale is the symbol of the Owl. The Owl is believed to be the spirit of a deceased person. The combined carving of the Killer Whale with the the Owl tells us about the Northwestern Coastal people's traditional belief that a Killer Whale seen from shore is the spirit of a deceased person returning to pay a visit.

I began telling them a current event story about "Luna", a Killer Whale, separated from its pod and living alone in Nootka Sound. He had been off the west coast of Vancouver Island for three consecutive years.

Nootka people living there believed that Luna embodied the spirit of their recently deceased chief, Ambrose Maquinna, returning to visit.

Killer Whales are highly social creatures and Luna was looking for things to interact with. Boats were about his size and he was known to disable and play with boats in Nootka Sound.

The federal government made attempts to pen the whale in order to capture and return it to its pod. First Nations people prevented that from happening. On "the news", all across Canada, people saw a group of Nootka people paddling a canoe out to deep water, away from the nets, to where he could not be captured. It was, I said, an amazing thing to see a massive Killer Whale swimming alongside their canoe to safety.

I was making the point that beliefs of the past were alive today, when a voice came from just beyond our little tour group. The voice was emphatic and angry, and said "They should have shot the bastard!". A man, in his early sixties, that I had not noticed before he spoke, immediately turned, stepped off the curb, and crossed the street away from us.

I am glad that at the time my guests from away displayed a great generosity of spirit. We seemed embraced and protected by the positive stories and energy of the poles. He had no affect on our enjoyment of the moment. But later, it made me think...