40-foot sculpture immortalizes an Indigenous legend in Vancouver’s Fairview

A Coast Salish public sculpture has been installed at the West Broadway and Granville Street intersection in Fairview.

A new public art installation inspired by a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) folktale has been unveiled in Vancouver’s Fairview neighbourhood.

The 40-foot-tall sculpture has been installed at the intersection of West Broadway and Granville Street and will welcome guests into The Stories at South Granville Station, a 39-storey mixed-use highrise due to open next month.

A collaboration between Squamish Nation visual artist James Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun Harry and multidisciplinary artist Lauren Brevner, the piece pays homage to Sínulhḵay, a supernatural double-headed serpent shared within the oral histories of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

“We all have our different versions, but the essence of the story is that Sínulhḵay came through the lands here and left marks all over the region,” says Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun, son of famed Squamish Nation artist and master carver Xwalacktun.

“There’s this story of the good and bad and the choices that we all have to make. It’s an example of how you have to go through your life making a choice between these two polar different decisions.”

A common thread within those stories was of the double-headed serpent Sínulhḵay boring tunnels underneath underneath False Creek to connect various sites across the region - a fitting tribute given the location of the piece will also be home to the upcoming South Granville Station.

The sculpture connects Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun’s Indigenous artistry with Brevner’s Japanese-Trinidadian cultural heritage, combining both metal and reclaimed, charred red cedar and showcasing a blackened interior that nods to the traditional Japanese technique of wood preservation, yakisugi.

Both artists, who met while studying at New Westminster Secondary School, have been collaborating for over ten years and describe the project as the crux of their artistic partnership.

“All of our collaborative work is that intersectional dialogue between Indigenous and non-Indigenous and, in simple terms, it’s about just meeting in the middle,” says Brevner.

“How can we move forward together finding the similarities as opposed to the differences? As a settler, how do we find that path forward? In order to do that, you need to know the history,” she said, adding how it is the responsibility of settlers to know the stories of the people “who have stewarded this land since time immemorial.”

Sínulhḵay adds to the growing presence of Indigenous artworks in Vancouver, and across B.C., that aren’t just playing a crucial role in reconciliation but are also preserving the First Nations cultural identity and heritage that was almost lost during colonization.

Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun says he hopes the pieces incite respect and joy, alongside a thirst for education on the stories and tales that make up Vancouver for those both Indigenous and non-Indigenous living in, or visiting, the city.

“There just isn’t a lot of our artwork left, and it’s been a real struggle for Coast Salish people to reclaim that because a lot of it was lost. It’s only within the last decade or so that we’re really starting to notice our people grasp that and understand it themselves,” he says.

“There’s really so many beautiful stories, and the artwork itself is so beautiful, and it’s just such a shame to almost have seen it disappear. Now we’re really celebrating the fact that there’s this resurgence and building of the Indigenous identity of the city.”