The Bear Mother Project

Well, that large bunch of women of all shapes, sizes, ages, and from all socio-economic, political, and educational backgrounds who set out almost two years to 'carve a pole' under the watchful eye of Victor Reece have put the final touches on their welcome poles. We may have been short on expertise in a lot of quarters but our enthusiasm made up for any shortcomings and the result of our collective efforts was raised for all to see on the Easter weekend, 2000 'after the snow flies' just as Victor predicted.

It has been a fascinating experience to ponder how all the pieces of the Bear Mother puzzle fit together and how the group dynamics of the women involved worked so well. Basically we wanted every woman or girl to feel welcome and we decided there was no such thing as a mistake, and it has been a group effort. As June Hayes put it, 'There haven't been any big cheeses!' Whatever contribution each woman could make, whether small or large, was welcomed. We learned to be patient; things would happen when it was time. We learned to trust each other and ourselves; we tried doing things we never imagined we could do. We shared moments of joy and sadness; sickness and health. In the almost two years we spent together some of us lost loved ones, suffered through serious illnesses, but we shared the happy moments, too.

The use of the symbolism of the bear mother and her cubs gave us the opportunity to honour our women ancestors or other women who have influenced us in positive ways. Victor wanted to honour his mother and his grandmother who nurtured him as a young boy and had such a positive influence on him, teaching him through their stories and by example. Our project, then, grew into a whole new dimension as many of us began to explore the lives of our women 'foremothers' and our other special women who in many cases we knew little about. And what a rich experience that was.

And it also gave us a chance to explore Pender history a little bit and to think about the lives led by some of Pender's pioneer women, Elizabeth Grimmer and Winifred Spalding in particular. How hard they must have worked. And then to take the learning one step further, what was life like for the First Nations Salish women who came to Pender a thousand years ago to gather food and other necessities such as medicine and cedar bark for their families?

Peter Campbell wrote: 'What is remarkable about the tone and content of these historic sources is that there is almost no reference to the pioneer women of our islands.' As many of the Bear Mother women began to delve into the histories of their women predecessors they encountered the same reality. Rarely were the efforts of any of the women acknowledged even though the contributions they had made were considerable and in many cases it was the women who held their families and communities together. The Honour Book has given us the chance to acknowledge the roles these women played and to honour them for it. And so, as we come to the end of this remarkable journey and make our final hook knife and chisel strokes, and then celebrate our collective achievement, I believe many tears will be shed. (We have learned that one of the things we share is that we can get quite emotional about even the little things.) I think I can safely say that many of the women are already looking around and saying, 'Hmmmm, what are we going to do next? We can't just stop!'

Doreen Ball, Pole Captain. From The Pender Post, March 2000