Can Coast Salish weaving connect the future to the past? 

Banner image: A blanket in the Simon Fraser University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

“The first thing you’re met with is our Weaving House,” says Nicole Vieira, Science World’s Student Program’s Manager and curator of Dream Tomorrow Today. She walks toward the small structure which includes educational screens. 

The area is abuzz with children working on interlacing, braiding and twisting colourful strands of cloth — learning about the enduring practice of weaving.  

Nicole says, “The Weaving House teaches you how to weave, trying to promote this idea that you are reusing materials, building something new out of something old … it’s really the visualization that the weaving brings the most value to.” 

The children’s creations both imagine future sustainability and tie into a rich history on the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) lands on which Science World is based.  

For weavers like Debra Sparrow of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, it feels like stepping back in time whenever she’s weaving a blanket. 

“I leave the world behind,” she says in a short documentary called Weaving the Path. 

“It’s my reason for being here and for being really responsible for how that moves through this world that we live in today.” 

Coast Salish weaving — the art of creating blankets, robes and other pieces from thick strands of wool — is an ancient practice with both spiritual and practical purposes. It was done for countless years before colonization and continues on today. 

Traditionally, blankets are spun and woven during the winter months. In the old days, the materials used included mountain goat hair, woolly dog hair (a species that is now extinct) and plant fibres, such as from cedar or willow trees. The materials are dyed so that intricate patterns can be woven into the design. 

These materials are the ultimate in sustainability because they “can remain a long, long time; just look at the blankets in museums,” Chief Janice George of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation explains in her co-authored book Salish Blankets : Robes of Protection and Transformation, Symbols of Wealth.  

At the Dream Tomorrow Today exhibition, a mother is demonstrating for her toddler the basic weaving pattern of “over under, over under” — with the final simple pattern creating a sturdy and strong wall of fabric.  

This demonstrates the practical purposes of weaving, but the art can have a much larger significance. Coast Salish blankets protect the wearer from the elements, and also serve as a form of spiritual protection. According to Salish cosmology, there are spiritual or supernatural worlds alongside our own. 

“The Salish worldview understands that robes and blankets already exist in the spirit world and it is the weaver who brings them into the human realm,” explains Salish Blankets. 

“She is directed by an Ancestral Spirit that the weaver has called on for guidance.” 

Patterns reflected in Coast Salish weavings include triangles, zigzags, lines and squares — each containing symbolism, story, governance and law. 

“As Musqueam people, as women, we brought design elements inspired by everything that we’ve seen and felt and heard even and created them in the blankets,” Sparrow explained.  

“They are the foundation of our Musqueam people, of our Salish people, they define our ceremonies, they define our laws, they are our existence.” 

Weaving Connections

The art of weaving not only connects Coast Salish people to the spirit realm and ancestors, preserves cultural custom and bonds families — it also connects communities now and into the future. 

For Sparrow, the weavings are a form of identity for what’s been briefly known as the City of Vancouver. She’s involved in a project called “blanketing the city” which involves creating large murals of weaving designs on various structures around Vancouver. 

The project came about stemming from thoughts Sparrow had about Vancouver’s identity and wanting to wrap the city in Coast Salish design, “because they’re not going anywhere and we’re not going anywhere.”  

Sparrow also weaves physical blankets and pieces, with her designs appearing in various exhibitions and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week. 

“Weaving is making its way back into all of our villages, it’s bringing the values … back into all of our communities. It’s reflecting itself in the city, wherever we go,” she said. 

“That for me is just what it’s always been about, is bringing it back into the world. And the thing my grandfather left with me when he left this world at 100 and I visited him in his bedroom and he said, ‘whatever I’ve shared with you, share with whoever else wants to know.’” 

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