This thesis focuses on the production and display of weavings made by a small
number of Musqueam women, who in the 1980s began weaving in the tradition of their
ancestors. It addresses the way in which these weavings, positioned throughout
Vancouver and worn in public settings, build a visual presence to counter the exclusion of
Coast Salish cultural representations from the public construction of history in Vancouver
and the discourse of Northwest Coast art. The Vancouver International Airport and the
Museum of Anthropology at the University o f British Columbia both share with
Musqueam a history of place. A distinct relationship fostered between Museum staff and
members of the Musqueam community has yielded several exhibits since the first, Hands
of Our Ancestors: The Revival of Weaving at Musqueam, opened in 1986. The presence
of Musqueam material at the Museum is part of an extensive history of interaction and
negotiation between Canadian museums and the cultural communities whose histories,
traditions and material culture are represented - a history which encompasses issues of
representation, authorship and authority. The Vancouver International Airport is also
situated on Musqueam traditional territory. Designed by representatives from the
Musqueam Cultural Committee and the Airport project team, the international arrivals
area features works of contemporary Musqueam artists which are intended to create a
sense of place with an emphasis on the distinctiveness of its location. Travelers cross
several thresholds in the terminal - the sequence o f these crossings carefully
choreographed so that deplaning passengers pass from the non-space of international
transience to a culturally specific space marked by Musqueam's cultural representations,
and then past Customs into Canada. Certain incidents at these sites indicate that visibility
and self-representation do not in themselves answer the problems of power and history.
When the Museum of Anthropology hosted a meeting for leaders of the Asia Pacific
Economic Community in 1997, a newly implemented protocol agreement between
Musqueam and the Museum was broken; and in a number of instances, achievements at
the Airport have also been impaired. Despite these limits, weavings are not examples of
token native inclusion as some critics argue. Rather, they are cultural representations
strategically deployed by the Musqueam community. Enlarged from traditional blankets
to monumental hangings, these weavings participate with other more recognized
monumental Northwest Coast forms. They are visual, public signifiers of Musqueam
identity which, without violating boundaries between public and private knowledge, carry
messages from the community to a broader audience - messages intended to mark
Musqueam's precedence in Vancouver's past as well as to claim visibility in the present.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11939 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Fairchild, Alexa Suzanne |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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