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Abstract
Coast Salish blankets, lovingly woven with hand dyed and home spun woolen yarns, adorn the walls of an international airport, museums, universities, a national broadcasting studio, and a mixed-use development project in Vancouver. All of these publicly accessible sites are located in unceded Coast Salish territory, upon which this city now exists. These weavings present a conundrum. Simultaneously viewed as public art and symbols of cultural revitalization, they continue to be marginalized as fine art, as most discourse about Coast Salish blankets occurs outside of the discipline of art history. How then, have these weavings found their way into these places and spaces as public art? What is it that they are understood to represent to the traveler, the student, the tourist, the passerby, and the community of their origin that makes them symbols of welcome at public institutions throughout Vancouver? Many of these labor-intensive and one-of-a-kind textiles, adorn buildings that are foundational to the colonial structures and systems that have served to dispossess Indigenous peoples from their territories. This paper makes a critical analysis of the place of Coast Salish weaving in Vancouver. It will consider how this ancient form has come to counter this dispossession through its presence. With keen attention to the voices of the women who weave this ancient and local textile form, the paper suggests that Coast Salish weaving can be understood as a material manifestation of the practice of “everyday decolonization” within Coast Salish territory. This research is focused on the city of Vancouver, and engages most directly with weavers from the Indigenous community of Musqueam and their relationships as artists within this urban center.
Notes
Acknowledgements
This work was made possible through the generous sharing of knowledge in interviews conducted with Debra Sparrow and Robyn Sparrow. Workshop leaders hereditary Chief Janice George and Willard Joseph, Frieda George, Dr. Susan Pavel, Jessica Silvey, have also shared their expertise and insights about Salish weaving, as well as their own practices. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Susan Rowley, who has been equally thoughtful and generous in her guidance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Debra Sparrow, pers. comm. April 2017.
2 This location is locally known as the “Marpole Safeway.” Elements of the architecture from the 1960s heritage registry Safeway grocery store are built into the façade of this multi-use re-development complex (see Ariss Citation2017).
3 These are only three of many Salish weavings commissioned for public display. For instance, works by Debra and Robyn Sparrow hang in the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s Vancouver studio (Debra Sparrow, Pers. Comm. April 2017; email communication with CBC, 2016), and in Graham Hall at Green College on the UBC campus (Fairchild Citation2001: 48). Twelve weavings created by the “L’hen Awtxw Weaving House” (Chief Janice George and Willard Joseph), hang at Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus (Simon Fraser University, n.d.).
4 The work of Jordan Wilson toward the exhibition, Beginning with the Seventies: Collective Acts, is focused on the collective energies of the Salish Weavers Guild. Their work evidences the scope of cross-community knowledge and materials sharing. Curator Lorna Brown, at the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery, UBC Vancouver, Sept. 4–Dec 2, 2018. https://belkin.ubc.ca/exhibitions/beginning-with-the-seventies-collective-acts/evidencesthe
5 Museum of Anthropology, The Fabric of Our Land, curated by Dr. Susan Rowley, in collaboration with many Coast Salish communities. https://moa.ubc.ca/exhibition/the-fabric-of-our-land-salish-weaving/.
6 I am re-considering the use of the term “settler-colonialism” based on a recent discussion at Musqueam 101 (November 14, 2018).
7 Stinging nettle is considered a weed by the City of Vancouver, and artist Sharon Kallis has worked with the city parks administration to create a space for growing, harvesting and processing this fiber, as was discussed in the “Stinging Nettle Workshop,” Textile Society of America Symposium, Sept. 23, 2018. Also see her web archive, https://sharonkallis.com/tag/stinging-nettle/
8 Coast Salish spindle whorls were large wooden (stone or bone) discs, often intricately carved, fitted onto a staff and used to spin and ply animal and plant fibers together (Arnold Citation2017: 58).
9 Interestingly, Aldona Jonaitis described evidence of political messaging regarding fishing rights in her consideration of the spindle whorl and houseposts at the airport, but did not include the weavings (2006: 270–273).
10 The c’əsnaʔəm the City Before the City exhibitions held at the Musqueam Cultural Center, the Museum of Anthropology, and the Museum of Vancouver, provided innovative and factual exhibitions regarding the degradation of Musqueam territory and an ancestral village (c’əsnaʔəm). The ‘parent’ website is no longer extant. See web archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20171003103026/http://www.thecitybeforethecity.com:80/
11 For instance, Debra Sparrow has created design components for the Vancouver Opera Company (Townsend-Gault Citation2013: 971), and collaborated with Nike to design the Team Canada logo for the jerseys they wore in the 2010 Olympics (Debra Sparrow, pers. comm, April 2017).
12 The exhibition was entitled ʔəsgəlk̓alikw Woven: Contemporary Salish Wool Weavings by Danielle Morsette. The announcement is available on the museum’s website, http://suquamishmuseum.org/featured_exhibit.htm.
13 Debra Sparrow’s mural on Granville Island was featured by the Vancouver Mural Festival in “Blanketing the City: A Mural Series,” May 11, 2018. Online, https://www.vanmuralfest.ca/news/2018/5/11/blanketing-the-city
14 Musqueam, “Marpole Crosswalk Design by Robyn Sparrow,” Oct. 30, 2018, Online, https://www.musqueam.bc.ca/marpole-crosswalk-design-by-robyn-sparrow/
15 Artist Collective, as part of Beginning with the Seventies: Collective Acts, Curated by Lorna Brown, Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery, UBC Vancouver, Sept. 4–Dec 2, 2018. https://belkin.ubc.ca/exhibitions/beginning-with-the-seventies-collective-acts/
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Alison Jane Ariss
Alison Ariss is an Art History graduate student at the University of British Columbia. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Art History at the University of British Columbia. She holds a Master’s degree in Art History from UBC, and a BA Honours degree in anthropology from the University of Waterloo. Her research interests include Indigenous art, Coast Salish wool weaving, critical museology, and the critique of institutions.[email protected]