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Saving The Silent Ones: The 1957 Totem Pole salvage expedition to Ninstints, World Heritage Site

by John Smyly with Carolyn Smyly

136 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #07-1915; ISBN 1-4251-4521-3; US$34.74, C$39.95, EUR27.08, £17.96

A lavishly illustrated personal narrative of the 1957 totem salvage expedition to the village of Ninstints, on remote Anthony Island in the Queen Charlottes, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

About the Book

In 1957, with the permission of the Skidegate Band Council, eleven masterpieces of Haida totemic sculpture were removed from their original home on Skunnggwaii llanas (Anthony Island). Already exposed to the rainforest climate of the Queen Charlotte Islands for more than 80 years, the poles were waterlogged, beetle infested and, despite their massive size and weight, extremely fragile. This is the story of that salvage expedition to Ninstints, when eleven men in a small seiner, with only ropes and handtools, rescued from inevitable decay these stunning examples of a unique art form. More than a hundred photographs, watercolour sketches and measured drawings illustrate the warm and humorous text by master model maker, John Hamilton Smyly.

About the Author

John Hamilton Smyly was born in Manly, New South Wales, and came to Canada with his parents when the family fortunes failed during the Great Depression. An early hobby of model-making led to a 24-year career as master model maker for the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria. He was included in the 1957 totem pole salvage expedition to Ninstints because his fascination with north-west coast Native art and architecture had led him to begin the creation of an entire Haida village in miniature (now on display in the Museum in Victoria). His dedication to absolute accuracy resulted in a collection of measured drawings of the totem poles of Ninstints and the crumbling remnants of the houses which had once been home to a vibrant first nations community on the gale-driven coast of British Columbia. As photographer, artist, model-maker and craftsman, he left an extraordinary legacy of creative works.

In 1968, he married Carolyn Case, then the Curator of History at the Museum, and together they wrote and illustrated many articles on historical and architectural subjects, and their book "Those Born at Koona" in 1972. After retirement from the Museum in 1987, he built his own house on Salt Spring Island, and died there in 2002,in his 78th year, only two months after the birth of his first grandson.

Carolyn Smyly was born in Edmonton, Alberta, into a writing family; both parents having been journalists, and an aunt (Victoria Case) and uncle (Robert Ormond Case) being well-known American writers of fiction and non-fiction. She grew up in rural Surrey, British Columbia, and graduated in honours English and History from the University of British Columbia in 1960. After a brief stint teaching school in Vancouver and England, she began a second career in Museum administration while working at museums in Lincolnshire and Staffordshire from 1964 to 1967.

She returned to Canada in 1967 to take the newly-created post of Curator of History in the new Provincial Museum building in Victoria which opened its doors to the public in 1968. That career came to a sudden halt due to civil service regulations that forbade married couples from working in the same department.

She took "early retirement" to raise two daughters, Kathleen and Jennifer, and start a third career as a free-lance writer and copy editor. She was active for several years in the heritage preservation movement, as founding president of the Hallmark Society in 1972, and as B.C. and Yukon Governor on the Board of Heritage Canada.

She now lives on Salt Spring Island in the house she designed and built with her husband, and continues to write, tend her garden and enjoy watching her two grandsons explore their shared heritage with Tahltan-Tlingit family members.