Two Eyed Seeing at Xwawchayay (Porteau Cove)

A partnership between Squamish First Nation (Squamish Valley Education Department), St’a7mes School (SD48) and BC Parks.

Guest written by: Matthew Van Oostdam

This project took place in the territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation). It happened in a place known as Xwawchayay, or what many folks know as Porteau Cove Park. The human relationship to this area spans thousands of years, and many of the First Nations youth who participated in this learning have ancestors who fished, lived and are a part of this landscapes story since time immemorial. This was a time when humans and animals could speak with one another and treated each other like family.

The St’a7mes School Family began our journey a few years ago when we partnered with BC Parks, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh knowledge holders and some divers from the Marine Life Sanctuaries Society. Students spent their day exploring sea creatures as divers brought them up from the ocean and placed them into tanks on the beach. At the same time Sḵwx̱wú7mesh knowledge holders from the community shared stories that explain our relationships to these creatures, the beaches around this area and the islands and mountains that surrounded us.

After two years of building a relationship to this area, the St’a7mes school community decided it was time to mark their learning in a significant way. With a renewed partnership and vision with BC Parks and some local Sḵwx̱wú7mesh carvers, we decided to carve a welcome figure to represent and symbolize all of the learning we have done, continue to do and the relationship we all have to the non-human world at Xwawchayay, known today as Porteau Cove Park.

We began by selecting and blessing a large red cedar log through a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh ceremony. Two local carvers, Neil Baker and Delmar Joseph, consulted the youth about the intention, the feelings and message of the pole. It should be noted that traditionally “totem poles” were not used in this area. There were House Posts that would be a carved part of a long house or Welcome Figures that would be a standing person. Each carver brings their own experience, skills and knowledge and helps bring the carving out of a log. We were taught that rather than manipulating and shaping a log into what we desire, we must work with the log and its spirit to bring it out in the shapes and form that it has – while keeping good thoughts in our heart and mind.

The Welcome Figure took on the head of the Thunderbird, one of the most highly respected creatures in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh. It was cloaked in a mountain goat wool blanket, showing the significance that the figure has. The blanket’s design was based off the Joseph family weaving design. And on the blanket, creatures were chosen to represent the animals that we have a relationship with. At the base of the Welcome Figure there are herring and sturgeon. St’a7mes school has a long story with slhawt-herring as they were a part of reviving the practice of Welcoming the Return of Herring and the traditional harvest of herring spawn on hemlock boughs. The sturgeons are at the base of the pole because Xwawchayay, the name of this area known today as Porteau Cove Park actually describes a “place of little sturgeon”.

The pole was carved at the school throughout the fall and winter of 2022 and spring of 2023. Students, family, and friends could spend time with the carvers four days a week as they worked on the pole in a covered outdoor area.

In the spring of 2023, a pole raising ceremony was held at Porteau Cove Park, or Xwawchayay. With help from Hailey Renaud from BC Parks and guidance from Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Education and Cultural workers, we brought everyone together, feasted and witnessed the work of brushing off the pole in preparation for raising it in its new home. Today it stands proud as a marker showing the learning that has taken place, the relationship that many people hold with this place, and as a reminder of the responsibility we all have to these places.

We are grateful for the partnership and support from BC Parks and look forward to continued work together.