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T’uy’tanat Cease Wyss, x̱aw̓s shew̓áy̓ New Growth «新生林», 2019, Semi-Public 半公開, 271 Union Street, Vancouver. Photo by Damaris Riedinger

Date

July 6, 2019

Time

12:00 PM–2:00 PM PDT

Research

Infrastructure

Contributor

Location

Semi-Public 半公開 [map]
271 Union Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 2B2 Canada

221A invites you to a welcoming and blanket ceremony for the x̱aw̓s shew̓áy̓ New Growth «新生林», led by T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss. The sophomore project at Semi-Public 半公開 is the result of a 14-month Fellowship by the artist and ethnobotanist, whose work focuses on the plants of the Pacific Northwest bioregion, as well as permaculture systems that maintain this region’s distinct biodiversity and ecological integrity.

Wyss lead a team of Indigenous youth to produce the garden, mentoring them in traditional methods for stewarding our ecosystem, and the best practices for restoring the proliferation of flora and pollinating species which used to be plentiful here. The garden was developed through the collaboration, learning, and labour of a network of contributors. On this occasion, 221A and T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss would like to honour the team who made this work possible. Youth Coordinator: Meaghan Innes, and the Youth Program Participants: Oliver Barnes, Brandon Brueckert, Kai Todd-Darrell, Anostin Todd-Darell, Valeen Jules, and Jazzmin Whitford. Special thanks to the Mudgirls Collective for producing a communal cob oven and bench on site.

Jazzmin Whitford building a spiral rock garden at the x̱aw̓s shew̓áy̓ New Growth «新生林». Photo by Damaris Riedinger

After the welcoming and blanket ceremony, the x̱aw̓s shew̓áy̓ New Growth «新生林» will continue to be open for public hours, Tuesday–Saturday, 12–5 pm. Throughout the summer the work remains in process as the planting sets in and we learn about the ways the site is behaving. The garden will remain in place at Semi-Public 半公開 as an infrastructure that asks all future users of the site to conduct their visits and work there, by establishing mutually beneficial relationships with the indigenous species on the land, and within the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Skxwú7mesh-ulh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and Tsleil-Watututh Nations, Vancouver’s Chinatown and historic Hogan’s Alley.

Please save the date of September 7, 2019 for the official opening reception of the site, with details to come.

 

Contributors

  • T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss (Skwxwu7mesh/Sto:Lo/Hawaiian/Swiss) is an interdisciplinary artist, ethnobotanist, educator, and food security activist with a 30-year practice that engages with communities, technology and ecosystems by sharing stories. Wyss was named the Vancouver Public Library’s 2018 Indigenous Storyteller in Residence, and she is developing a project for the City of Vancouver artist-initiated public art commissions, entitled Constellation of Remediation in collaboration with Anne Riley.     

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the principal financial support of the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Foundation for their financial support of x̱aw̓s shew̓áy̓ New Growth «新生林», and the visionary in-kind support of the Pacific Crown Investment Corp. for the free use of the property. We also acknowledge the support of Semi-Public 半公開 from the City of Vancouver Cultural Infrastructure Grants, Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, BC Gaming, British Columbia Arts Council, The Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation, Lafarge Canada Inc., and our founding donors, Chan Family Foundation, Sarah Todd & Aaron Gray, and an anonymous patron, who initiated the Semi-Public 半公開  site in 2015.

  • Vancouver Board of Parks & Recreation

Unceded Territory

221A acknowledges that the area called Vancouver is within the unceded Indigenous territories belonging to the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. 221A recognizes that the colony of British Columbia was created through organized dispossession and colonial violence. 221A seeks to shift its organizational practices to work together with Indigenous people to end ongoing violence, dispossession and displacement.