People Amongst The People

People Amongst the People by Susan Point (Musqueam) consists of three monumental Coast Salish gateways installed at Brockton Point in spapəy̓əq — an ancestral village site within what is now called Stanley Park. While millions visit this area to view the totem pole display, few know that local communities were displaced here both physically and culturally. Northern-style poles were installed for tourism beginning in 1924, while Coast Salish visual culture was excluded from representation.

Installed in 2008, this work marks a turning point: the first major acknowledgement of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) artistic presence in this highly visible site.

The gateways draw on Coast Salish house post architecture—structures that formed the heart of longhouses. They feature imagery deeply tied to this land: weaving patterns, herring, orcas, and celestial figures, all rendered in the Coast Salish visual language of interconnected, non-hierarchical forms. These references speak to the spiritual and ecological relationships embedded in the land, sea and sky.

For many, Stanley Park is a recreational escape. For Coast Salish people, it remains a place of history, ceremony, spiritual power and dispossession. Susan Point describes the gateways as “reinstating the Salish footprint upon our traditional lands.”