Former students, teacher, carve place in history

By Douglas Farmer
Turley Publications Staff Writer

BRIMFIELD -For Paul Niejadlik of Brimfield, a former art teacher at Converse Middle School in Palmer, a vacation by boat, car and foot with his wife Eileen through the interior of Alaska chiseled some unforgettable images in his mind. It was on this journey in 2002 that he discovered the art of making totem poles, often part of the structure of homes that memorialized families, those who died or other aspects of life in a village.
Many totem poles carved and smoothed by the natives in Alaska are made out of red cedar, said Niejadlik, and colored with elements they have in abundance like copper, berries and charcoal. They are expected to last 100 years, though many have been taken and placed in museums in Canada and the United States. In recent times, native tribes have sued to have them returned, leading historians to scramble to have replicas created.
Niejadlik described the process from tree to totem pole at a “Brown Baggers” program at Hitchcock Free Academy in Brimfield on March 5, along with a slideshow of images of the many sights he and his wife came across as they moved from village to village.
But this eye-opening experience seemed to take on a life of its own with the deaths several years ago of his good friends, science and math teacher Joseph Ketschek and former Converse assistant principal Brendan MacDonald.
“I really wanted to do something to memorialize them, because I knew the students and staff were mourning too,” he said. “So I decided to pursue a grant to bring the art of totem-making right into our school.”
That grant ultimately came from the Art Renewal for Teachers Program, which also funded numerous projects of a unique nature throughout the country. In the case of Niejadlik’s students, they spent a year and a half carving and smoothing 12-foot logs donated from Belchertown in the basement of their school. Each grade level was given specific tasks at designated times – seventh graders did the chiseling with small wood chisels, sixth graders did the smoothing and fifth graders used sandpiper – and even some former students of Ketschek got in on the act when they stopped by to pay a visit.
But before anyone sought to make their permanent mark on the wood before them, sketches were drawn and models made out of clay to solidify their vision. Each image etched on a totem pole can symbolize different aspects of someone’s life, said Niejadlik.
“Joe was a skier who volunteered with the disabled at Mount Snow,” he said. “So we carved things like skis and goggles.”
A “potlatch,” or traditional totem pole-raising ceremony was held on June 15, 2004, and the two poles in honor of Ketschek and MacDonald now stand at the entrance to the art room at Converse Middle School.
“That was a great project and a lot of people got into it,” said Converse Principal David Stetkiewicz. “I know it meant a lot to the kids.”
In later years, another totem pole was created with a visage of King Tut, at the request of a social studies teacher, and that pole stands on the first floor of the middle school.
Perhaps the most memorable totem-raising was held in June 2007 in honor of Molly Bish, the 16-year-old lifeguard kidnapped from Comins Pond in Warren in 2000, whose remains were later found and whose mother, Magi Bish, is a teacher at Old Mill Pond School in Palmer.
“I was asking my class about ideas for our next project, and this little voice in the back of the room said ‘Maybe we should do something in honor of Molly,’” said Niejadlik. “And I thought, bingo, there’s our next project.”
The base of that totem pole bears an image of Molly, along with bear arms wrapped around her for protection, a frog symbolizing her love of the water, a raven, children and an eagle with his talons wrapped around an eye – the watchful sentry that knows who killed her and aims to protect the community.
“I remember when we presented the pole to Magi, she hugged the base of the pole and said ‘You’ve given me Molly back,’” said Niejadlik. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the place.” That pole, taken briefly to the Warren Town Common, now stands near Magi Bish’s classroom at the Palmer elementary school.
Niejadlik has since retired, and no teacher continued the school-wide exploration of art in subsequent years. Nevertheless, it seems apparent that the projects were an aspect of his students’ education that was literally carved into their memories, and it did the same at the program at Hitchcock earlier this month.
“I had known about Paul’s work and he lived right down the street so I’d been bugging him to come in and give a presentation,” said Sue Gregory, the executive director of Hitchcock Free Academy. “But I had no idea how involved this really was. It’s hard not to get emotional about it.”