Living in the Land of Giants

Tracing the inspiration of Canadian artist Emily Carr, witness and documenter of a vanishing culture

‘Indian War Canoe, Alert Bay’ (1912) by Emily Carr [view license]

I arrived in Alert Bay sixty years after Emily Carr painted this image. See the houses on the right of the painting? I have walked past the house with the two thunderbird totem poles in front of it on countless occasions. They were still standing…