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- Title: lelum’ ’utl’ qwuyuxwuthut | Edward Paul’s House
- Description: Puykwilum’s house posts on the exterior of Edward Paul ‘s home.
hwuhwilmuhw knowledge
- Speaker/Story Teller: —
- Date of recording: —
- Listen to the recording in Hul’q’umi’num’:
Audio currently unavailable
Key information
- Time period or Date: 1914
- Theme(s): Totems and House Posts, Buildings, Villages
- Location: Somenos Village
- Source info (type – name): Museum — Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives
- Photographer credit: F.A. Monck
- Individuals identified: N/A
Learn more
About House Posts in Kwa’mutsum
Five house posts from this Cowichan shaman’s longhouse in the Coast Salish village of Qw’umqwiimut tell of the abilities and powers of his family members.
The posts supported the roof beams inside the house of Puykwilum, a respected tsuwmun (doctor, or shaman) who did many good deeds for his people. They informed people about the family that the house belonged to. The different figures told of the abilities, or powers, that the family members had acquired through inheritance and earned through study. They were a source of great pride, and were thought-provoking company, with many stories to tell.
The Kwa’mutsum village of Qw’umqwiimut, where these house posts were created, was on Cowichan Creek near the present-day city of Duncan on the east coast of Vancouver Island.
Puykwilum’s house had stood for a long time at the end of the village beside Cowichan Creek. When the house collapsed about 1903, the posts were moved to an adjacent house owned by his son Edward Paul and installed on the outside walls. Over time, changes were made to the house and to the posts.
There is more information about the posts as well as more photographs here: https://totems.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/en/story/Puykwilum
The posts were acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Corfield and erected near their store, The Canoe, in the 1930s
Related images
Related images to come.
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