Wrapped in Wool: Coast Salish Wool Weaving, Vancouver’s Public Art, and Unceded Territory

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.