Editorially speaking...
Everyone knows about the murals of Chemainus; they are, after all, internationally famous.
A new project on the local scene was recently announced, the Que’utsun Festival of Murals, as explained in this news release:
COURTENAY, July 27 2022 – Quw’utsun elders and youth, the Cowichan Intercultural Society, the City of Duncan, the Duncan United Church, and other community organizations are working together to create an artistic mural display to foster cultural understanding and promote cultural tourism, with funding support from the Community Placemaking Program.
These organizations have formed Nanum‘Iyus Tth’ele (Meeting of Joyful Heart) to establish reconciliation murals at two locations in downtown Duncan. The project is being guided by Cowichan Tribes Elders and youth to celebrate Qu’wutsun culture and heritage.
“This is a major step for reconciliation, building meaningful connections in the community and a better understanding of each other,” stated Councillor Albie Charlie, Whulquletse, of Cowichan Tribes’ Council.
The goal of this project is to beautify downtown Duncan in an inclusive way, continuing conversations about reconciliation started by the Hul’q’umi’num’ Signage Project in 2019.
“During the pandemic, we all worked together [to] install bilingual Hul’q’umi’num’ and English street signs on seven streets in the downtown core as an example of reconciliation in action,” explains Amanda Vance, Executive Director of the Cowichan Intercultural Society. “That project was an act of solidarity in response to news that some businesses were refusing to serve Cowichan members due to Covid-19 cases on reserve. We hope that this new project will further increase the comfort of Cowichan Tribes members in downtown Duncan.”
The Nanum ‘Iyus Tth’ele mural project came together as partners in the Hul’q’umi’num’ Signage Project went on walks together through downtown.
“I remember the first time the group of Elders working on this project walked around town with us sharing stories of places where they were segregated, others that were unwelcoming, and those that still are unwelcoming. Then they began to speak about their hope for the future and the importance of us working together to build that future. The murals reflect that hope for the future and our commitment to building it together,” stated City of Duncan Mayor Michelle Staples.
The art mural installations will be designed by a collective of Coast Salish artists and apprentices and will include multimedia components such as a QR code leading to Hul’q’umi’num’ words, songs, or stories. Mural themes will include the past, present, and future of reconciliation, reframed in Hul’q’umi’num’ as ‘thu-itsthuw tun shqwaluwun’ (be truthful with your feelings). The mural panels will be movable to allow for the possibility of sharing throughout the region.
"We’re honoured to contribute to this beautiful Quw’utsun-led placemaking initiative in Duncan. Seeing Indigenous languages and cultures living, used, taught and celebrated throughout First Nations’ respective territories in all communities is an important part of building healthy and resilient communities across the coast,” stated Brodie Guy, CEO, Island Coastal Economic Trust.
The project will receive $50,000 through a collaborative funding arrangement between the Island Coastal Economic Trust and the Targeted Regional Tourism Development Initiative (through 4VI), which provides one-stop funding support of up to 100% of project costs to stimulate and promote vitality in downtowns, Main Streets and business districts across the region.
“We gratefully acknowledge the Province of BC for the funding to support the Community Placemaking Program and help community projects such as this be realized,” says Anthony Everett, President & CEO, 4VI. “This highly collaborative initiative syncs with growing trends in cultural and educational tourism and showcases the strong history of the Quw’utsun peoples.”
The Nanum‘Iyus Tth’ele group sees this project as a pilot to gauge interest and capacity for an annual, multi-cultural mural festival that would continue to highlight Indigenous artists and reconciliation. This initiative is expected to get underway shortly, beginning with a Call to Artists to be released this summer.
Meaning that Duncan, the City of Totems, will soon also be known as a city of murals. The totems, murals and bilingual downtown street signs will do much towards celebrating Cowichan’s Indigenous heritage.
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Chronicles reader and fellow scribe Tom W. Parkin (if I ever catch him using just his initials...) wrote to say he’s just completed a lengthy article on Henry Croft’s legendary Lenora Mount Sicker Railway for “one of Canada’s railfan magazines”.
He graciously gave my book, Riches to Ruin, the story of the Mount Sicker copper mine boom at the turn of the last century, a credit line and asked to use this great photo of the No. 2 locomotive crossing the Nugget Creek trestle. I, in turn, acquired it from the late Elwood White who, with the late Dave Wilkie wrote the history of Croft’s railway, Shays On the Switchback.
Recycling at its best!
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I could never put a price tag on some of the wonderful feedback I’ve enjoyed over the years of writing the Chronicles, first in the Cowichan Valley Citizen, now online as www.CowichanChronicles.com. Kind and supportive comments have always gone a long way towards keeping up my morale.
Writing is truly a solitary craft—no wonder then that, for years, my logo was a lighthouse.
It’s the communication with readers that serves to remind me that what I do has meaning and value—that readers really are ‘out there’. Yesterday, it was the turn of Lorelei who in a phone conversation told me that she feels she and I meet every week—in the Chronicles which she looks forward to in her inbox every Thursday.
Thank you again, Lorelei, for that wonderful validation of what has become a lifetime of trying to ‘save’ history via the written word.
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Well, folks, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and we have just one more Chronicle before another new year. So, in the meantime, the very best Christmas to you, one and all. And may there be many more to come!
—TWP