Floating Blue Cabin hosts traditional weavers in year-long residency program
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2019 18:00:21 +0000
Skeins: Weaving on the Foreshore
When: Aug 25 (launch)
Where: Plaza of Nations Aquabus Stop in False Creek
Tickets: free admission (tours every 15 minutes from 11:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m)
A restored 1927 squatter’s cabin on a floating concrete platform, the Blue Cabin is a Vancouver landmark, at least to some. Angela George knows it well.
“It was situated down at the waterfront near Cates Park, in our traditional territory here,” said the Squamish/Tsleil-Waututh Nation activist/weaver. “I’m also a canoe paddler, and for many many years I paddled back and forth past that blue cabin. So it feels like it’s coming full circle with this revitalization project.”
Beginning with its official launch Aug. 25, the Blue Cabin will be turned into a movable residency for artists. For the duration of its inaugural year-long program, Skeins: Weaving on the Foreshore, it will moor in False Creek near the Plaza of Nations. Weavers will take turns living and working on the boat. Besides George, the other weavers-in-residence are Vicki Couzens (Sept. 15 to Oct. 31), Janice George and Buddy Joseph (Feb. 15 to March 31, 2020), and Debra Sparrow (April 15 to May 31, 2020). Angela George’s term runs Nov. 15 until Jan. 15 of next year. Each of the guest artists has a history of community involvement, reclamation, and activism.
“It’s kind of open as to how we want to use the space,” George said. “We will definitely be weaving.” The public will be able to take in classes, talks and exhibits.
Originally built in 1927 as a floating house in Coal Harbour, the Blue Cabin was relocated to North Vancouver for more than 80 years. Artists Al Neil and Carole Itter used the space as a studio from 1966 until their eviction in 2015, when a developer purchased the cabin’s site next to Cates Park. When the structure was scheduled for demolition, grunt gallery, Other Sights for Artists’ Projects, and C3 led a campaign to save it. Last year, artist Germaine Koh and architect Marko Simcic added a small 500-square-foot deckhouse to structure, which features off-the-grid water and power systems.
Skeins is meant to highlight the resurgence of weaving in Indigenous cultures. George herself didn’t start weaving until seven years ago.
“I think I’m fulfilling a lifelong dream of my late mother,” George said. “Her grandmother was the last weaver in our family. My mom went to residential school and never had opportunities to do any weaving. She had mentioned longing to learn to weave a few times, to reconnect our family lineage to weaving.”
Tsleil-Waututh Nation weaver Angela George will live and work on the Blue Cabin beginning in November.
Much of the knowledge around weaving has been lost, however.
“Traditionally, what we know is that different styles of weaving and different fabrics, like the goat hair and the dog’s hair and those types of elements, were used in weaving, depending on where the weaver was from. The same with the designs, colour and style. Nowadays it’s more open and broad and people are weaving what they’re inclined to weave, or what’s requested.”
Little is documented about motifs and types of patterns. “But I have heard stories from elders that you could look at what somebody’s wearing and know exactly where they came from.”
George teaches weaving as well, and has found enthusiastic students in different communities across the province. “Sometimes I’m sitting in ceremony and I have my little loom and I’m weaving and some people that I’ve connected with over the years will sit by me just so they can learn. There’s a lot of interest.
“And through the process of teaching, I’m learning a lot. When I sit at the loom, I feel like it’s a door to the past as well as the future. And our hands are weaving together people and concepts and teaching and history.”