In the Presence of Ancestors
In 2017, Coast Salish artist and Port Moody resident, Tasha Faye Evans, began a journey with a project titled The Welcome Post Project, which included a series of community engagement opportunities and educational sessions along with the carving of a house post at the Noons Creek Hatchery. That beautiful house post, Saymahmet, by Squamish artist and carver James Harry, was raised in ceremony at Rocky Point Park and installed at Noons Creek Hatchery in 2018.
The Welcome Post Project was the inspiration for In the Presence of Ancestors, which is a project that reasserts the presence of the original caretakers of the Coast Salish lands and waters in and around the place we now call Port Moody. In the Presence of Ancestors has offered a variety of community engagement opportunities over the last five years, and the project will culminate in 2025 with the raising of five house posts from Coast Salish Nations along Port Moody’s Shoreline Trail, between Rocky Point Park and Old Orchard Park.
Carvers from səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), q̓ic̓əy (Katzie), and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nations have carved unique house posts that will restore a highly visible First Nations presence in the community. Installed facing the water, the house posts remind our community of our shared responsibility for protecting the Burrard Inlet. Each installation site will be designed as a space for learning and reflection and will include signage, in Salishan languages, sharing words from the carvers and the vision for the future of Coast Salish Lands and Waters.
The City of Port Moody is proud to support In the Presence of Ancestors and thanks artistic director Tasha Faye Evans and everyone involved for their work on this important project. We are also grateful to the Noons Creek Hatchery for providing In the Presence of Ancestors with ongoing support, including space for dialogue, learning, carving, and ceremony.
“Port Moody resides within the beautiful ancestral lands and waters of the Coast Salish people. Many positive changes towards redress, truth-telling and reclamation of Indigenous values are happening in our city with softness of healing slowly rippling throughout all of our communities. In the Presence of Ancestors is an effort to carve these changes permanently into the legacy of Port Moody and create a path of healing for all of our relations.”
~ Tasha Faye Evans
