The Woman and the Raven - Hope BC

 Whenever we go down to Washington State, we always stop off at Hope BC.  We like the park in the centre of town, the impossibly tall Cascades that surround it– and especially, the wood carvings;

A lot of these are left over from chainsaw carving competitions;

But at least one of them looks like an authentic Pacific Northwest Totem Pole;

There was no signature on this one, no date on which it was carved.  There is a raven with its claws firmly on the head of the being below.  All of the raven’s attention is focused downwards.  And what sort of creature has the raven’s attention?  

It is almost a bird, but the beak is not long enough, and the carving of the shoulders and chest suggests fur.  Yet it is not a bear.  Possibly an ape of some sort, or a Yeti.  

 

It has a waist, and could be a woman, but the deep-set eyes in the chest, where the breasts would be, make this questionable.  

The face coming out of the chest is ape-like and very intense.  The woman seems to be holding it back with both arms.  A restraint of action that comes from the heart.

There are additional faces on each of her shoulders.  Similar in form to the woman’s face, both shoulder faces seem sad.   

Finally, the only face on the back of the figure is located on the back of the Raven.  It is the same sort of face as the woman’s, and also stern or sad.

In the Haida culture, according to Google, “Raven symbolizes creation, knowledge, prestige as well as the complexity of nature and the subtlety of truth...  A mischief-maker...symbolizes creation, transformation.” 

Putting this together, Raven has brought a difficult and painful truth to the woman, that pierces her like Raven’s claws to her head.  Raven brings understanding of the past (the face in Raven’s back).  The woman has options (faces in the left and right arms) but these are both full of sadness.  Her reaction to the message of Raven is intense– (large face in the chest) but she restrains it, for now.