Chrystal Sparrow (born 1983) is a traditional and contemporary Musqueam Coast Salish artist living in Vancouver, British Columbia on unceded Coast Salish territory.
Chrystal Sparrow (born 1983) is a traditional and contemporary Musqueam Coast Salish artist living in Vancouver, British Columbia on unceded Coast Salish territory.
Sparrow comes from a family of Coast Salish artists, weavers, and carvers. [1] She is a visual artist and a third-generation carver, having been traditionally mentored by her late father, master carver Irving Sparrow. She is also a fourth-generation fisherwoman. [2]
Sparrow sees Coast Salish art as a language, learned through "designing, and experimenting in new mediums." [1] Intergenerational learning, and the ways of knowing inherent in the land that is Musqueam's traditional and unceded territory, are intimately connected in Sparrow's practice. [2] Her designs are distinctly feminine, with an emphasis on simplicity and elegance. In addition to painting and carving, for which she uses acrylics and both red and yellow cedar, she has also worked with jewelry and weaving. [3] [4] She is currently looking to abstraction, beadwork, and colour elements that draw from her Cree and Shuswap heritage. [4]
In 2018, Sparrow became the inaugural artist-in-residence at A Frame Activation: Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Cultural Residency at Second Beach. Through her residency, she established a space for learning, conversation, and creating relationships. [5] With a focus on building community and healing, she also used the space to invite elders and women from the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre (where she has worked as a cultural programmer) to create art and share a meal together. [5]
Her public projects include a welcome post carved in 2019 as part of a project initiated by the Vancouver School Board (VSB). Sparrow worked alongside William Dan, who is also a member of the Musqueam Indian Band, as well as James Harry and his father Xwalacktun, who are members of the Squamish First Nation. The artists carved three posts that were erected outside the VSB's district office and Britannia Secondary School. The feminine figure in Sparrow's post wears a cedar hat and cloak and is surrounded by imagery relating to orca and salmon, speaking to Sparrow's identity as a female carver as well as her family's connection to fishing. [6]
Sparrow's most recent work, Indigenous Matriarchs, was presented on a billboard at Arbutus St. and West 12th Avenue as part of Platforms: We Are Here, Live, a series of twenty-three public art projects commissioning xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) artists. Indigenous Matriarchs is a multimedia work honouring Sparrow's "Coast Salish and Cree matriarchal lineage." [7] Other works by Sparrow include a house post for In the Presence of Ancestors, a project curated by Coast Salish artist Tasha Faye Evans, which will see five posts raised in ceremony along Port Moody's Shoreline trail by June 21, 2023. [8] In 2017, Sparrow carved a 7' by 3' red cedar panel commissioned by Starbucks Canada, #150plus wishes, in collaboration with the Broadway Youth Center, and in 2016, she completed a 7' by 3' red cedar panel for the City Council Chambers at Vancouver City Hall. [1] Her work can also be seen at B.C. Children's Hospital, the leləm̓ Community Centre at the University of British Columbia, and at other locations across the city. [9] [10] [11]
Sparrow began a diploma program in Expressive Art Therapy at the Vancouver School of Healing Arts in 2018, and is currently pursuing her M.A. in Expressive Arts Therapy at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. [11] [12] Her younger brother, Christopher Sparrow, is also a carver.
Kitsilano is a neighbourhood located in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Kitsilano is named after Squamish chief August Jack Khatsahlano, and the neighbourhood is located in Vancouver's West Side along the south shore of English Bay, between the neighbourhoods of West Point Grey and Fairview. The area is mostly residential with two main commercial areas, West 4th Avenue and West Broadway, known for their retail stores, restaurants and organic food markets.
False Creek is a short narrow inlet in the heart of Vancouver, separating the Downtown and West End neighbourhoods from the rest of the city. It is one of the four main bodies of water bordering Vancouver, along with English Bay, Burrard Inlet, and the Fraser River. Granville Island is located within the inlet.
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The Tsleil-Waututh Nation, formerly known as the Burrard Indian Band or Burrard Inlet Indian Band, is a First Nations band government in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation ("TWN") are Coast Salish peoples who speak hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, the Downriver dialect of the Halkomelem language, and are closely related to but politically and culturally separate from the nearby nations of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), with whose traditional territories some claims overlap.
West Point Grey is a neighbourhood in the northwest of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is on Point Grey and bordered by 16th Avenue to the south, Alma Street to the east, English Bay to the north, and Blanca Street to the west. Notable beaches within West Point Grey include Spanish Banks, Locarno and Jericho. Immediately to the south is Pacific Spirit Regional Park and to the east is Kitsilano.
The Squamish Nation is a First Nations government of the Squamish people. The Squamish Nation government includes an elected council and an administrative body based primarily in West Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Squamish, BC.
The Squamish people are an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Archaeological evidence shows they have lived in the area for more than a thousand years. In 2012, there was population of 3,893 band members registered with the Squamish Nation. Their language is the Squamish language or Sḵwx̱wú7mesh snichim, considered a part of the Coast Salish languages, and is categorized as nearly extinct with just 10 fluent speakers as of 2010. The traditional territory is in the area now in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, and covers Point Grey as the southern border. From here, it continues northward to Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast, up the Howe Sound. The northern part includes the Squamish, Cheakamus, Elaho and Mamquam rivers. Up the Cheakamus River it includes land past Whistler, British Columbia. The southern and eastern part of their territory includes Indian Arm, along Burrard Inlet, through False Creek then English Bay and Point Grey. Today the Squamish people live mostly in seven communities, located in West Vancouver, North Vancouver, and within and nearby to the District of Squamish.
Naut’sa mawt Tribal Council is a First Nations Tribal Council located in British Columbia, Canada, with offices in Tsawwassen and Nanaimo. NmTC advises and assists its 11-member Nations in the areas of Community Planning, Economic Development, Financial Management, Governance and Technical Services NmTC is also actively involved in fostering dialogue and understanding between its members and their neighbouring communities.
X̱wáýx̱way or x̌ʷay̓x̌ʷəy̓ , rendered in English as Xway xway and Whoiwhoi, is a First Nations village site, located in what is now Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The village was located on the eastern peninsula of the park, near what is now Lumberman's Arch. The village was home for many Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-waututh people, but after European colonization began in the Vancouver area, the inhabitants were forced to re-locate to nearby villages. The village was named for a mask ceremony; thus, the best translation of x̱wáýx̱way would be "masked dance performance".
Coast Salish art is an art unique to the Pacific Northwest Coast among the Coast Salish peoples. Coast Salish are peoples from the Pacific Northwest Coast made up of many different languages and cultural characteristics. Coast Salish territory covers the coast of British Columbia and Washington state. Within traditional Coast Salish art there are two major forms; the flat design and carving, and basketry and weaving. In historical times these were delineated among male and female roles in the community with men made "figurative pieces, such as sculptures and paintings that depicts crest, shamanic beings, and spirits, whereas women produced baskets and textiles, most often decorated with abstract designs."
The Salish peoples are indigenous peoples of the American and Canadian Pacific Northwest, identified by their use of the Salish languages which diversified out of Proto-Salish between 3,000 and 6,000 years ago.
Aaron "Splash" Nelson-Moody is a Squamish carver working in the Coast Salish tradition. Nelson-Moody's works include the doors to the B.C.-Canada pavilion at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin. He also creates Coast Salish based jewellery.
Jody Broomfield is a Canadian artist working in the Coast Salish tradition. His work includes several coin designs for the Royal Canadian Mint.
St Paul’s Indian Residential School was a Canadian Indian residential school located in the City of North Vancouver, in the 500 block of West Keith Road on what is now the parking lot of the St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School. It was a Roman Catholic school operated from 1899 to 1958 by the Order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The students of the school came from the adjacent Mission Reserve as well other Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam peoples.
In the late 1870s, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh communities on the North Shore of Burrard Inlet experienced an increase of physical and economic encroachment from the expansion of neighbouring Vancouver. Faced with urbanization and industrialization around reserve lands, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh traditional economies became increasingly marginalized, while government-imposed laws increasingly restricted Native fishing, hunting, and access to land and waters for subsistence. In response, these communities increasingly turned to participating in the wage-labor economy.
Debra Sparrow, or θəliχʷəlʷət (Thelliawhatlwit), is a Musqueam weaver, artist and knowledge keeper. She is self-taught in Salish design, weaving, and jewellery making.
Evann Siebens is a Canadian media artist with a background in dancing based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her current practice cross-references dance performance and media. Siebens' film works have been shown both nationally and internationally and have won awards. She recently exhibited a geodesic dome and 360 projection at the Belkin Gallery in Vancouver and also screened a commissioned work on the exterior of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Her moving billboard Orange Magpies Triptych was part of Capture’s Photography Festival. She has also performed live with her media at New Media Gallery and the Western Front, Vancouver.
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Tʼuyʼtʼtanat-Cease Wyss is a Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó꞉lō, Kānaka Maoli (Hawaiian), Irish-Métis, and Swiss multi-media artist, ethnobotanist, independent curator, educator, activist, and small business owner based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Tʼuyʼtʼtanat is Wyss's ancestral name, which means “woman who travels by canoe to gather medicines for all people.” Wyss's interdisciplinary practice encompasses aspects of visual art, fiber arts, ethnobotany, storytelling, and community education, among other interdisciplinary approaches, and she has been working with new media, performance, and interdisciplinary arts for more than 30 years. As a Coast Salish weaver, Wyss works with wool and cedar and uses indigenous plants in the dyeing process. Wyss also engages with beekeeping and gardening practices as part of community-led initiatives and as a way to explore aspects of land remediation - the ability of plants to remediate soil that has been contaminated with colonial toxins.