Journey Of Enlightenment By Susan Point

- Susan Point Gates

Artist Statement From Susan Point

The unique spirit of the Pacific Northwest has been a profound inspiration for Susan’s work. Throughout her life, she has strived to incorporate ancestral Musqueam elements into her art, creating pieces that reflect the beauty and wonder of this region.

Each of the eight artwork designs is a celebration of life, with intricate imagery threaded and woven together, representing the web of life and the ways we are all connected. Lively and inspiring, the intention of the artwork is to energize people of all ages, motivating them to get out, enjoy life, explore, and treat Mother Earth with kindness.

A Recapitulation Of The Storyboards

Within my sculpture, I am attempting to recognize a place in time. The eight different designs are an experience for the community and the students to experience a Musqueam journey like no other. These stand as windows or open gateways to our history and our understanding of the history of the site and the surrounding lands. This is a connection to share between Musqueam and St. George’s School’s students and families.

Within the four chapters of the storyboards, the imagery consists of canoes, salmon, halibut, wolf, heron, kingfisher, sturgeon, cattail, raven, eagle, hummingbirds, grass (relating to the Musqueam People as “People of the Grass”), orca, butterflies, male and female welcome figures both presenting coppers (which is a symbol of wealth). A pair of Salishans on the central butterfly imagery represents future generations. The canoes along the bottom of each storyboard represent an honouring journey of knowledge, as this artwork is for a school and education is a journey…all originally designed in my contemporary Coast Salish art style. Two storyboards together form a total canoe at the bottom. My imagery also creates a rainforest motif by way of weaving all the imagery together and connecting them, as though walking through the forest seeing layer upon layer of images transforming with shadow and changing daylight through all four seasons, illustrating a story passed down from generation to generation as is our Musqueam tradition for millennia.

This artwork marries mediums and cultures as well as traditional stories. It also metaphorically fuses natural imagery with modern methods.

Overall, the forms represent a thriving modern culture centred on our historical legacy, a sense of place, and a landmark that respects the past, present and future.

Female Salish Welcome Figure

Presenting a Copper is a symbol of wealth to Northwest Coast First Nations, commonly shared at ceremonies and potlatches. Women are the keepers of our knowledge and carry on family customs. Within the copper are salmon motifs, which when paired, are considered a symbol of prosperity and good luck. This imagery is intertwined with grasses, and at the bottom, you might recognize the subtle reference to a bow and a canoe.

The River

Before European contact, The River was the primary transportation course for Salishan Peoples, linking between inland communities and the Coast. The imagery here reflects woven salmon & sturgeon throughout as well as bird motifs (eagles, kingfishers, ravens, and gulls, amongst others) incorporated within the weave. The River is vital for food, but more importantly, each family had their own canoe as it was essential for travel. The River is crucial to our well-being.

Salish Sea

Musqueam people have voyaged for trade and celebration while protecting the Salish Sea for thousands of years. Our family welcomed the first non-native explorers in the early 1790s, which has always been our custom to travellers and guests coming to our inherited territories. This imagery consists of salmon and bird motifs; it is up to the viewer to discover additional imagery, including references to the orca and the thunderbird.

Male Salish Welcome Figure

Presenting a Copper, a symbol of wealth to Northwest Coast First Nations, commonly shared at ceremonial gatherings and potlatches. The imagery on the copper shows a pair of salmon, once again, for good luck. At the bottom of the regalia are two generic bird images, and at the very bottom is a reference to the stern of a Musqueam canoe.

Iona Beach

These grasslands were an essential place for Musqueam peoples, harvesting reeds and cattails, traditionally used as sleeping mats, baskets, and short-term shelters. It is a traditional hunting ground on the western tip of Sea Island. Many forms of extraordinary life live here, and our people still fish in the surrounding area. The imagery shown here consists of an eagle at the top, as well as salmon and sturgeon throughout. An elegant heron is in shown at the center.

Salish Legends

This storyboard ties together and represents many flora and fauna told in our legends throughout time. These include the Crane, the Salmon People, the Wolf People, and the Whale People, to name a few. Near the top are birds and fish. In the middle a single cattail above a wolf. Grasses, subtle references to berries, and an eagle carrying his catch rise up at the base from the waters shown below.

The Mali

These are the traditional river delta locations used by our ancestors for millennia as village sites close to the river's mouth. It is part of a migratory waterfowl route, filled with cattails & grass extending to Sea Island. Grasses are evident here and are intertwined within most of the storyboards, a reference to Musqueam as ‘people of the grass’. These grasses also make subtle reference to the great Cedar trees that once lined the shoreline here, filled with nitrogen 15 brought ashore through returning salmon. Hummingbirds, the messengers between worlds, are seen throughout this design, symbolizing the past and present.

Connections

Butterfly’s stages of life relate to our own lives; we are often going through many changes. Butterflies represent the changes in our lives that we should accept, as they do. This storyboard is about the future, our connection to life, and embracing the changes in our lives and bodies. These three butterflies represent the past, present, and future. They also represent three generations: children, parents and grandparents. The bird images throughout the bottom butterfly reinforce this, as she cares for her eggs. The central butterfly references the shape of a bird but looked upon more closely, young women emerge to represent the youthful spirit and the continuation of life. The top butterfly wings show the birds ready to fly away and complete their journey, as a feather falls from each back to the ground. The grasses here are filled with berries.

Phone: 604-224-1304
Email: info@stgeorges.bc.ca

Junior School

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Canada V6S 1T6

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Canada V6S 1V1

St. George’s School acknowledges that we are situated on the unceded traditional territory of the Musqueam First Nation.

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