Blanketing the City V: The Rescue

Blanketing the City V: (Rescue) (Aftermath) (Wealth of the Land) is the fifth installation in the Blanketing the City public art and reconciliation series, initiated by xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) weaver and designer Debra Sparrow in partnership with the Vancouver Mural Festival. The project affirms the resurgence of Coast Salish weaving traditions in urban spaces and challenges the ongoing suppression of Indigenous visual culture.

The mural is a collaboration by three master weavers from the local nations:

• The Rescue — Chief Janice George & Buddy Joseph
  Inspired by the 1886 Great Vancouver Fire, this mural honours the Squamish ancestors who paddled across the inlet to rescue people from the flames. The two-headed serpent Sínulhḵay̓, depicted with a flame-like weaving pattern, speaks to ancestral power and protection.

• Aftermath — Debra Sparrow
  Facing the city, this wall reflects the smouldering remains after the fire. Blackened silhouettes of buildings sit beneath rising Coast Salish forms representing embers and loss. The absence of weaving patterns symbolizes the destruction brought by colonization, even as Indigenous people offered aid and humanity.

• The Wealth of the Land — Angela George
  This mural speaks to resurgence and the enduring wealth of the land and waters. Weaving designs ripple outward like water, representing renewal, ancestral knowledge and the responsibility to create good ripples in the world.