Since time immemorial
Photo Credit: B. Turner. Blessing the Welcome Pole.
Ayes Men Men and the Squamish Nation, Camp Fircom, and the David Suzuki Foundation have collaborated to create week long camps for youth and adults to get to know Gambier Island/Chá7elknech guided by Squamish/Skwxwù7mesh culture.
Archeological sites on the island indicate that for thousands of years, Howe Sound, (known as Átl'ka7tsem, Nexwnéwu7ts, or Txwnéwu7ts in the Squamish Nation language) provided abundant food, shelter and stories for Coast Salish peoples. The Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) people called the island centered in the middle of this deep fjord Cha7élkwnech in reference to its deep protected bays. It was a celebrated deer hunting area and was extensively used for resource gathering.
The island was named by Captain Richards in 1860 for James Gambier, Admiral of the Fleet. While accomplishing great things for Britain, he never set foot on the island.
The Gambier Island Conservancy respects interconnectedness and embraces the idea that people are tightly connected to their communities, to their ancestors, to future generations, and to the lands on which they live and to all of the animals, plants and even inanimate objects that reside on these lands.
CHA'7ELKWNECH, Ho mahmk (Gambier Island, Brigade Bay) glass installation designed and implemented by graphic designer Shelley Fearnley, a commission from Developer Jim Green. Her intention with the work was:
“to allow passersby a chance to sit and reflect on the history of the location, not to be intrusive in the space, but more to inspire thought regarding 'what was'...like a geographic memory. Looking through the glass, one might imagine a 'history of place' while looking at the present.
I placed a log on the pathway leading down to the bay. If you position yourself just right you might see the canoes floating on the water at high tide, or alternately, canoes sitting on the sand at low tide. There may be a need to cut back the brush to allow for this view corridor during the spring clean-up day(s).”
Shelley was provided with the words by the Squamish Nation, who gave her access to archival photos which were sandblasted onto the tempered glass.
Shelly recalls meeting with a Squamish Nation elder named Ruby who provided an oral history of the area. She told me of the past importance of the bay which is described on the glass. Shelley was also given some mythology about 'Skunk' and about a great potlatch hosted by 'Skunk and Mink' held at a place called St'ap'as on the other side of Gambier Island.