Canoe Cultures :: Ho’-ku-melh pulls into Vancouver Maritime Museum, to July 2022
Twenty Indigenous artists share work in the multidisciplinary exhibition, which celebrates canoe culture and resilience
Canoe Cultures photo via Vancouver Maritime Museum
Vancouver Maritime Museum presents Canoe Cultures :: Ho’-ku-mel—War Canoes and the Gifts They Carry Forward to to July 3, 2022
Curated by mixed-media artist Roxanne Charles of the Semiahmoo First Nation, Canoe Cultures :: Ho’-ku-mel—War Canoes and the Gifts They Carry Forward is an exhibition of 20 Indigenous artists and knowledge keepers who explore resilience, colonialism, displacement, food sovereignty, the climate crisis, and more while celebrating the history of the war canoe on the West Coast.
In Chinook jargon, ho’-ku-melh means “to gather”.
Among the highlights is Ôsi :: The Canoe, a triptych of feltings by Cease Wyss about life prior to contact; an illustration by Caleb Ellison-Dysart depicting his personal connection to the canoe; a mural by Jessey Sue Tustin that addresses the loss of personal connection to history that many Indigenous people experience; and an enormous photograph of the delegation of Indigenous chiefs who petitioned the British King and the Canadian government to repeal the restrictions imposed through the Indian Act.
The exhibition features a beautiful jacket with canoe-themed adornments by Christie Lee Charles and a poem by Wil George celebrating the canoe.
Then there’s Mitzi, a 70-year-old racing canoe from the Squamish Nation North Van Canoe Club. The first dugout racing canoe on the coast to receive a carbon-fibre coating, Mitzi has gone through many developments over the years
Also making up the exhibition is Canoe Cultures, a program that constructs new canoes through an apprenticeship program led by Mike Billy Sr., a seventh-generation canoe builder whose Squamish name is Lemxacha Siyam.
A dedicated room within the exhibition is all about ongoing issues affecting Indigenous people and communities. Consider a weaving by Caitlyn Alec titled Creator, take us home in which the artist interprets the events surrounding children’s remains discovered at residential schools and how the children can now travel back to their Creator in canoes.
For more information, see Vancouver Maritime Museum at https://vanmaritime.com/ho-ku-melh/.
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