We are happy to share that the Aboriginal Gathering Place will once again have an Indigenous Winter Market as part of ECU’s annual Student Art Sale!
Discover, collect, and celebrate creativity!
Find everything from one-of-a-kind pieces to limited-edition works by our talented emerging artists and designers. Stop by the ECU café to explore beautiful, handcrafted creations by Indigenous artists and makers and then continue down the Michael O’Brian Exhibition Commons to peruse the legendary Student Art Sale.
From paintings, drawings, ceramics, and sculpture to printmaking, photography, illustration, housewares, wearables, and jewelry—there’s something for everyone.
Together, these events showcase the creativity, diversity, and innovation that make our artistic community so vibrant. Come explore, connect, and take home something truly special!
Indigenous Art Market Hours, ECU Café:
Thursday, Nov. 27 | 5 – 9pm
Friday, Nov 28 | 4 – 8pm
Saturday, Nov 29 | Noon – 4pm
Student Art Sale Hours, Michael O’Brian Exhibition Commons:
Thursday, Nov. 27 | 5 – 9pm
Friday, Nov 28 | Noon – 8pm
Saturday, Nov 29 | Noon – 6pm
Emily Carr University of Art + Design 520 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC
7pmPerformance by PIQSIQ, Aboriginal Gathering Place With a style perpetually galvanized by darkness and haunting northern beauty, sisters Tiffany Ayalik and Inuksuk Mackay come together to create Inuit style throat singing duo, PIQSIQ. Performing ancient traditional songs and eerie new compositions, they leave their listeners enthralled with their ability to weave complex emotional landscapes that transcend language.
Kajola and Sydney with their sealskins stretched in a frame. (photo courtesy of Kajola Morewood)
By Rumnique Nannar (Originally posted on ECU News)
The Aboriginal Gathering Place staff members attended a once-in-a-lifetime workshop in Norway for five days of practical learning and cultural exchange.
Some images in this story contain depictions of harvested seals as part of a traditional Indigenous practice. The photos may be sensitive for some viewers. We share them with respect for the cultural knowledge, subsistence practices and community traditions they represent. Click on the images to enlarge.
Out in the Norwegian Sea are the islands of Hysvær, a designated world heritage site and nature conservancy. Locals tend to eider ducks by building homes for them lined with dried seaweed, while a small herd of sheep wanders according to the tides. In this remote setting, workshop participants engaged in a unique opportunity for cultural exchange and reflection.
Islands of Hysvær (photo by Sydney Pascal)L: Two male eider ducks on the chilly waters of Hysvær. R: Grazing sheep in the hills of Hysvær (photos by Kajola Morewood)
Sophie Kleppe and Roni Ohman, the founders of Ulu of Norway, hadn’t done a sealskin tanning workshop in over a decade. Sydney and Kajola were among the 12 students who participated in the opportunity.
For Sydney, Aboriginal Programs Coordinator with the Aboriginal Gathering Place (AGP), the trip started through a friend and hide-tanning mentor. “She has been following Ulu of Norway and mentioned it as something we could do together. She has been collaborating with some First Nation communities on Vancouver Island who have harvested seals. This trip was the perfect opportunity to learn traditional methods of treating and working with seals and to be able to share the teachings afterwards. I told Kajola, who was able to join us as well.”
Sealskins drying inside Gåkkå Mathus (photo by Sydney Pascal)
Kajola notes the learning she and Sydney undertook aligns squarely with the AGP’s broader mandate to provide Indigenous students with culturally appropriate support encompassing both traditional and contemporary artistic and cultural expressions of Indigenous peoples.
“This trip offers a passing down of traditional knowledge — knowledge we don’t have access to where we’re located,” Kajola says. “We’re now able to bring these lessons to our Indigenous students, some of whom are Inuit, or — like myself — may have involuntarily lost contact with their ancestral communities and cultures. This trip helped us build another pathway to practices, skills and traditions that might otherwise remain out of reach for our students. Instead of reading about these things in books, we’re able to speak and teach from direct experience about these animals and their crucial importance to this unique community.”
L: Processing sealskin using an ulu. (photo by Sydney Pascal) R: Roni Ohman, Sophie Amondsen, Sydney Pascal, Sophie Kleppe working on seal skins (photo by Kajola Morewood)
Each day began with a walk over the rocks and across two narrow footbridges leading to the worksite near a dock and boat house. Students received a sealskin and set themselves up on the land with a low table, an ulu and a scraper. Ulus are crescent shaped knives with a handle which have been traditionally used by Inuit women. Two successful hunts occurred during the week, yielding three seals, where Inuit instructor Louise Fontain shared the tradition of honouring the seal with a drink of fresh water before butchering.
Sydney walking over to the work site. (photo by Kajola Morewood)
Sofie Amondsen, an Inuk artist and researcher, shared her research on seal intestines and how different Inuit communities used them to make waterproof clothing. She demonstrated cleaning the intestines using the edge of a shell and then blowing them up, like balloons, to dry. Sydney and Kajola also harvested claws and whiskers to be used in their art practices and to make jewellery.
L: Sydney blows up seal intestine to dry. R: Kajola holds seal claws in her hand. (photos courtesy of Sydney Pascal)
Kajola, Aboriginal Programs Manager with the AGP, who had no previous tanning experience, wanted to connect with Inuit culture and traditions. “I haven’t done any kind of hide tanning at all, but seals are important to Inuit communities,” says Kajola. “I’ve been thinking about ways to work with seal more directly rather than just ordering it and having it arrive ready to go.”
L: Selection of ulus and scrapers (photo by Kajola Morewood). R: A stunning sealskin against the moody sky of Hysvær (photo by Sydney Pascal).
Sydney has been hide-tanning deer, elk and other land animals since 2018. Working with seals was an experience, unlike anything she had done before. The physicality of the work is quite different from that of processing land animals, which requires more upper-body strength to scrape and soften the skin.
The workshop also provided the opportunity to craft mittens out of sealskin and reindeer hide, which the Norwegian instructors work with year-round. On rainy days during the workshop, it was a treat to hunker down and get to know their fellow students.
L: Students sewing inside Gåkkå Mathus. R: Kajola’s seal fur and reindeer hide mittens. (Photos by Kajola Morewood)
They had not anticipated the pervasive smell of the seal on their work clothes. “Seal has a particular smell,” says Sydney. “I actually liked the smell, but we were all reeking of it. We were a little worried about travelling home!” The hides have been washed and framed to dry on the AGP balcony. Up close, Kajola and Sydney point out how soft the fur is and how you can see spots where the grease is being pushed out in the drying process.
The trip highlighted the importance of Indigenous-led teaching and served as a bridge to international collaboration. “Living on the West Coast, there aren’t really opportunities to learn from other Inuit how to work with seals,” Kajola reflects. “So that was very special.”
Dana Claxton is a critically acclaimed artist who works with film, video, photography, single/ multi-channel video installation, and performance art. Her practice investigates indigenous beauty, the body, the socio-political and the spiritual. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis, MN), Sundance Film Festival, Salt Lake City (UT), Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis (IN), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney, AU), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AR), Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University (Durham, NC), Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (TN) and the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MN). Her work is held in public, private and corporate collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Audain Museum, Eiteljorg Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Forge Project, Minneapolis Institute of Art, University of Toronto, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art and the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery.
Claxton has received the Eiteljorg Fellowship (2007), Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award (2019), YWCA Women of Distinction Award (2019), Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2020), the Scotiabank Photography Award (2020), and the Audain Prize for the Visual Arts (2023). Fringing the Cube, her solo survey exhibition, was mounted at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2018) and the body of work Headdress premiered at the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art, Toronto ON (2019). She is the winner of Best Experimental film at the IMAGINATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival (2013). Her latest solo exhibition Dana Claxton: Spark opened at the Baltimore Museum of Art in August 2024.
Her exhibition Rick and the Mohawks is on view at Macaulay & Co until June 28, 2025.
Please join the Aboriginal Gathering Place for a House Post installation celebration!
Thursday, April 17 at 5pm Atrium outside the Reliance Theatre Reception in the Aboriginal Gathering Place to follow.
The following text was originally posted on ECU News on May 12, 2022 in recognition of the Honorary Degree Xwalacktun received that year. (By Kayla MacInnis)
Xwalacktun, also known as Rick Harry, believes that art was gifted to him at a young age by the creator. With ancestry from Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and Kwakwakw’wakw Nation (in Alert Bay), Xwalacktun mastered his skills and education with the help of Emily Carr and Capilano University but credits his creativity as a gift from the natural world.
“My art just comes together. With nature, with the ancestors, with community, within my own self, you know, it kind of emerges out of that,” he tells me “I want to give it life. It’s not just a nice piece of artwork to me. We never had a word for artwork. It was the way of our life. It had to blossom out of us to tell a story—a story to help myself or others around me, or the ones that are not here yet.”
That credo guides his practice, which locates its apex in a tradition of reciprocity. This tradition emphasizes a need to protect the natural landscape and its inhabitants for the seven generations ahead of us.
Yet Xwalacktun is mindful he still has to participate according to society’s rules in order to survive. For instance, it’s sometimes necessary to drive a truck to move trees for his practice. Still, he assures me he demonstrates respect and gratitude with each tree through ceremony —he brushes, cleans, and takes a moment to put a prayer over it, promising he will give it new life.
“I breathe it. I breathe in nature. I breathe within myself,” he says. “I pay attention to my surroundings, and I think about the ancestors. I believe that, at times, it’s like the ancestors are coming through, helping me along the way.”
Perhaps one of Xwalacktun’s greatest gifts is the gift of teaching. He has taught and continues to mentor many in Coast Salish design. His voice reverberates with enthusiasm whenever he talks about sharing knowledge and working in collaboration with others.
The seeds of creativity he witnesses in youth and new artists are a testament to the world that inspires him to create every day, advising artists to “do the best they can and then do it better the next day.”
Xwalacktun works on a house post in the Aboriginal Gathering Place at ECU with students Aaron Rice, Jessey Tustin and Randall Bear Barnetson in 2021. (Photo by Connie Watts)
Shifting Forms is a FREE three day symposium foregrounding the perspectives of Indigenous storytellers working in Animation, Interactive and Media-based art forms.
Hosted by Spotted Fawn Productions and Basically Good Media Lab, the gathering will bring together an exciting lineup of digital knowledge keepers to share viewpoints via a screening of animations, panel discussions, matriarch speakers, art and VR installations, workshops, live performances and a VR Jam.
Participating storytellers will share their process, successes and progression within digital platforms, identify and explore digital literacy issues, and present perspectives for our future generations of storytellers. This is an opportunity for collective learning for storytellers and knowledge holders and audience regarding accountability, rightful representation, and non-exploitation.
The symposium will be taking place at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver the weekend of April 11-13. All events, talks, workshops are free with registration (until capacity is full). Please register for a day pass each day you hope to attend talks and panels! Workshops, Performance Events and VR activities require separate registration.
