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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #63135 Medium Haida Gwaii totem poles and stewardship

Read the following passage.

A. On the small island of SGang Gwaay, off the west coast of Haida Gwaii, visitors find the remains of large cedar longhouses and several carved mortuary and memorial poles at the village of SGang Gwaay Llnagaay. The village lies in Gwaii Haanas, a protected area on the southern half of Haida Gwaii that has no roads and can be reached only by boat or seaplane. Most visitors come with licensed tour operators. The poles at the village carry crests of the Eagle and Raven clans of the Haida.

B. Most poles are carved from western red cedar, a rot-resistant tree whose straight grain makes it easy to work. The figures on a pole are crests that mark a family's lineage and its rights. Haida poles have closely intertwined designs in shallow relief, and three carved watchmen, human figures in high hats, often sit at the very top. In the past, real watchmen were posted around a village to raise the alarm when an enemy approached. When a new pole is raised, a feast or potlatch is often held, the stories of the crests are told, and guests witness the family's claim to them.

C. In the late 1700s, the islands were home to an estimated 20,000 Haida or more. Diseases such as smallpox, measles and tuberculosis then struck, and by the late 1800s fewer than 600 Haida were left. Survivors from the southernmost villages came together at SGang Gwaay Llnagaay and were later invited to live at Skidegate, and the village was occupied until shortly after 1880. The federal government also banned the potlatch in 1884 through an amendment to the Indian Act. In 2013, the Gwaii Haanas Legacy Pole became the first pole in over 130 years to be raised in the Gwaii Haanas region.

D. An Archipelago Management Board of Haida and Government of Canada representatives makes decisions by consensus, and Haida Hereditary Leaders, who have moral authority over the village sites, are consulted. After consultation with chiefs and elders, four poles were straightened and stabilized in 1995 and another in 1997, to lengthen the time before they return naturally to the earth. Threats include the decay of the cedar, deer, and visitors who may damage fragile remains by touching or walking on them. From May to September, Haida Gwaii Watchmen work at the sites as guardians and guides. Even rot-resistant cedar poles last only about a hundred years before they begin to break down, and this decay is seen as a natural part of a pole's life.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.

Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.

- 1.
Illness caused the Haida population to shrink sharply.

- 2.
No highway leads to the protected area, so people must arrive by water or by air.

- 3.
Some poles were given extra support so that they would stay upright for longer.

- 4.
The figures often found at the top of a pole stand for lookouts who once warned of attacks.

- 5.
The 2013 pole is taller than any of the old poles at SGang Gwaay.

- 6.
Some people who lived through the outbreaks moved from the far south of the islands to Skidegate.

- 7.
Guests at the ceremony for a brand new pole confirm that a family has a right to its symbols.

- 8.
Parks Canada staff picked the poles that received support in the 1990s.

- 9.
The old carvings at this village display the symbols of two Haida family groups.

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