https://www.comoxvalleyartgallery.com
This multi-year convergent program is rooted in relational practices and integrating Indigenous place-naming, public art, full circle tea garden, exhibitions, installations, cross-cultural sharing, performance, video screenings, workshops, gatherings and residencies. Image courtesy of Alun Macanuty.
Indigenous Place Naming of CVAG plaza: Qwee-koos-ah-ool Me’łlun, facilited by Elder Wedlidi Speck in collaboration with K’ómoks Heads of House.
Traditional Welcome Poles, created by local artists Karver Everson and Randy Frank, under the cultural/artistic mentorship of Master carver Calvin Hunt. Welcoming and Blessing Ceremony, October 27, 2018. Image courtesy of Alun Macanulty.
Welcoming and Blessing Ceremony, community dance. Image courtesy of Alun Macanulty.
Traditional Welcome Poles in progress with artists Karver Everson, Randy Frank, Calvin Hunt, Elder Mary Everson, Elder Wedlidi Speck, and Andy Everson. Final work - installed at the Comox Valley Art Gallery pictured with members of the Kumugwe Cultural Society Dancers, Cultural Leaders and artists, 2018. Images courtesy of Alun Macanulty
Traditional Welcome Poles, cedar, paint, 12’ h x 24” dia., 2020. Image courtesy of Alun Macanulty
Garden planting on the CVAG Plaza, under the guidance of Traditional Knowledge Carrier Barb Whyte and City of Courtenay Horticultural Supervisor Tyler Johns. First stage planting: October 23, 2018. Second Stage: April 2020. Image courtesy of Alun Macanulty.
Traditional Knowledge Carrier Barb Whyte tending to the garden, 2020. Image courtesy of Alun Macnulty.
CVAG staff team, board members and community planting, under the guidance of Barb Whyte and Tyler Johns. Image courtesy of Alun Macanulty.
Indigenous plant walk with Traditional Knowledge Carrier Barb Whyte. Image courtesy of Alun Macanulty.
"Crossroads", Andy Everson, concept drawings and source research for public art site work on the CVAG Plaza, 2020.
Installation of "Crossroads" by Andy Everson facilitated by Tom Partridge (Valley Prototyping and Custom Cutting) and the installation/finishing crew: Jess Lewis, Glenn Partridge, and Mary Partridge, March 2020. Images courtesy of Alun Macanulty.
"Crossroads", Andy Everson, public art site work (north view), Lazer cut Kingcore Starboard, steel. 16’ w x 10’ h, 2020. Image courtesy of Alun Macanulty.
"Crossroads", Andy Everson, public art site work (south view), Lazer cut Kingcore Starboard, steel. 16’ w x 10’ h, 2020. Image courtesy of Alun Macanulty.

Public Place : Sacred Space

    Schedule

  • Exhibition October 20 2018 - January 1 2026

CVAG Plaza 

PUBLIC PLACE : SACRED SPACE is a multi-year program that integrates themes of welcoming, gathering and healing through the incorporation of Indigenous place-naming, site installations, a full circle tea garden, exhibitions, cross-cultural sharing, performance, video screenings, workshops, gatherings and residencies. The undertaking was a collaboration between the Comox Valley Art Gallery, participating artists, curators, Elders, the K’ómoks First Nation community and the City of Courtenay.

Together, the components in this program are seen as a step toward reconciliation and recognition of the historic relationships the K’ómoks peoples have had with this Valley for thousands of years.

PLACE NAMING – Qwee-koos-ah-ool (Puntlege) and Me’łlun (K’ómoks)

The place-naming component of the project first engaged Andy Everson, First Nations Artist, K’ómoks Cultural Leader and Anthropologist, in 2017 to unearth the significance of the land upon which the CVAG plaza (and downtown core) has been constructed.  Andy Everson, K’ómoks cultural leaders, and four Heads of House – Kerry Frank, Allan Mitchell, Ernie Hardy Senior, and Wedlidi Speck, recognized the role of the gallery plaza as a centre-point within the City’s cultural core, its status as a place of welcoming, gathering, and healing, and its significance within K’ómoks culture and unceded territory.

Two names were put forward by the Heads of House as place-names for the gallery plaza:
Qwee-koos-ah-ool (Puntlege) and Me’łlun (K’ómoks). Elder Wedlidi Speck notes that using the two names or words together suggests a unity between the two peoples. It is a way to honor both. The Comox Valley Art Gallery is honoured to have been gifted this name. It is seen as an opportunity to develop the CVAG plaza space as a ‘calm space’ in which differences can be valued, and in which diversity is fostered through public meeting and celebration.

TRADITIONAL WELCOME POLES

In 2018, Randy Frank and Karver Everson, under the mentorship and training of master carver Calvin Hunt, created and installed two Welcome Poles on the plaza of the Comox Valley Art Gallery in downtown Courtenay.

The poles are linked to The Guardian Pole Project an initiative of the K’ómoks Nation that will see the creation and installation of 20+poles over a ten year period. The poles identify the traditional K’ómoks Unceded territory, which spans the southern Great Bear Rainforest south to Denman and Hornby islands. In form and design, the poles signify the bounty of the land and stories, traditions and cultural practices of the K’ómoks people.

TRADITIONAL INDIGENOUS GARDEN

The Traditional Indigenous Garden at CVAG Plaza was planned and constructed under the guidance of Elder Barb Whyte in 2020. Since then, Barb has guided ceremony, cultural teachings, and harvesting of the garden. In 2024, Barb met with city horticulturalist Tyler Johns and CVAG staff to consider what updates the garden needed. Changes have been made to accommodate the stresses of the urban environment on some of the original plantings.

I give thanks to the Creator, Creator of our planets and our stars. I honor Mother Earth for all that she gives us, the oceans, rivers, mountains, and plains. I give thanks to the trees and the plants for supporting the physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing of our elders, mothers and fathers, and our children that walk upon her with respect for ourselves and respect for Mother Earth and all of my relations.

– Barb Whyte

CROSSROADS

Situated outside the Comox Valley Art Gallery since 2020, this sculptural site installation by artist Andy Everson is part of the overarching plaza project. The work brings awareness to the traditional Bighouse architecture and the formline/fineline of the Kwakwaka’wakw and Coast Salish imagery and represents the historical and current significance of the region as a place of territorial, environmental and cultural intersections.

The components of the Public Place : Sacred Space plaza project began during CVAG’s 2018 convergent programs Touching Earth Bodies and In This Place, which also included the exhibitions Touching Earth Bodies, Nump Ma Noch Gyai Yoo Lahss (We All Come From One Root), and Honouring: Project Of Heart / Speaking To Memory and related events.

HONOURING: Project of Heart / Speaking to Memory – E-Publication

Download Publication PDF - 27.65 MB

Acknowledgements

The Comox Valley Art Gallery is grateful to operate on the Unceded Traditional Territory of the K’ómoks First Nations.

The Comox Valley Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges the SUPPORT of Canada Council for the Arts Engage and Sustain program + New Chapter program, BC Arts Council, Government of Canada, Province of BC, The Kòmoks First Nation, City of Courtenay, Town of Comox, Comox Valley Regional District, City of Victoria, University of Victoria Legacy Art Gallery, North Island College, BC Gaming, Campbell River Museum, Royal BC Museum and Library and Archives Canada, Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, U’mista Cultural Centre, Project of Heart Canada,  BC Teacher’s Federation, BC Gaming. LOCAL BUSINESSES and COMMUNITY PARTNERS include: Phillipa Atwood Architect, Valley Prototyping & Custom Cutting, Industrial Plastic & Paints, ABC Printing & Signs, West Coast Home Theatres, Imperial Welding Ltd., McLoughlin Gardens Society, SD71 Print Shop, Sure Copy and Hitec Printing, Outlook Engineering and Landscape Architecture, Bruce Lewis Surveying, McEllhany Consultants.

           

We are especially grateful for the support of consulting Elders and Cultural Carriers, guest artists and curators, program participants and collaborators, gallery volunteers, donors and members.

This is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.