Totem Poles and Tea [Paperback]

Eldon Lee (Author), Hughina Harold (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1895811112 | ISBN-13: 978-1895811117 | Publication Date: July 1997 | Edition: First Edition

In the mid 1930s, Village Island at the mouth of Knight Inlet and 25 kilometres from Alert Bay off northern Vancouver Island, was still an active winter village for the Nimpkish people. It was also the home of Katherine O'Brien and Miss Kate Dibben, two English ladies who operated a small mission outpost and preventorium for native children suffering from tuberculosis. The Mamalilikulla Indian Day School which doubled as the Village Island Church came under the jurisdiction of Indian Affairs and it was their responsibility to provide a school teacher for the resident children. In the fall of 1935, hesitant and shocked by the primitive facilities she encountered, a youthful Hughina Bowden, fresh from Royal Jubilee Nursing School in Victoria, started her first year as teacher-nurse in these surroundings. To her surprise, Hughina returned for a second year of isolation, and she regularly wrote long letters home to pass the time. Years later, she discovered those many letters in her late mother's belongings and wrote a series of stories read regularly on CBC radio. In 1985, widowed with a family of three adult daughters, Hughina returned to Alert Bay. Village Island, she was told, had long been abandoned and was visited only by summer boaters seeking an overnight anchorage. Hughina's manuscript provides a compelling account of adversity and perseverance, and the coming of age of the author, sixty years ago.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hughina Harold (n?e Bowden) was born in Victoria and taught at the Mamalilikulla Indian Day School on Village Island from 1935 to 1937. Her coastal memoir was first published in 1996, when she was 82. Harold passed away in 2001. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 218 pages
• Publisher: Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd; First Edition edition (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1895811112
• ISBN-13: 978-1895811117
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,425,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Frontier in '35., July 1, 2009

By 

E. Hodge "A Scribbler" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Totem Poles And Tea (Paperback)

This book was an impulse buy, but it was fun. As a young woman, a recent graduate of nursing school in Vancouver, BC, Ms. Harold landed a job at a pretty good $90/month, it being 1935 and during the Depression! The only catch: She would be working on a remote island north of Vancouver, teaching and nursing in a First Nation's village. It was lonely, it was cold, transportaton was as likely to kill you as transport you and people her own age were hard to find. However, she remained for two years, made friends and found a new understanding of the independent, interesting people from all over the world who found their way to this remote patch in the Canadian Pacific. In writing her memoir, Ms. Harold did not sugar-coat her youthful reactions to circumstances through the hindsight of the over 50 years which passed between the time of her service and her telling of the tale. Her incredible poise when faced with the conditions she must work and live in is a real testimant to her determination and sense of adventure. (As often happens, or did before letter writing became a threatened art...saved letters to her mother during that time filled in many details she might have forgotten when she came to write the book.) I enjoyed this very much.

5.0 out of 5 stars Book :Totem Poles and the Sea", January 4, 2012

By 

Patricia Bundy "bibliothec, fancy name for bo... (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Totem Poles And Tea (Paperback)

Have ordered so many many books over the years from Amazon or their sellers. Never been disappointed in the service, always come in condition advertised. Once I received a book that was so old that the pagegs were yellowed and difficult to read. I contacted the seller, returned it and money was refunded.