swəw̓q̓ʷaʔɬ (Blanket)

The Musqueam, and other Coast Salish peoples, come from a long tradition of weaving. Although contemporary weavers weave for a variety of reasons, several of the weavers at Musqueam have expressed that their weaving enables them to connect with their ancestors and at the same time leave a cultural legacy for future generations. Many weave primarily for personal use and for gifts to family and friends, while others weave as a profession and sell their work to art dealers and museums. In recent years, Musqueam weavers have also received commissions from large corporations, such as Paramount Studios and the Vancouver Airport.

On March 3, 1997, this blanket was worn by Gail Sparrow (Musqueam Elected Chief) to a ceremony held at the Museum of Anthropology to unveil two new houseposts and a welcome figure carved for the museum by Susan Point. This blanket was also worn by Musqueam Elder, Vince Stogan, for the opening ceremonies of the APEC Summit, which was held at the Museum of Anthropology in November 1997.

contemporary art; weaving

The weaver used s-spun wool in its natural colours. Several weaving techniques were used: double strand twining, discontinuous wefts to create wavy lines and other shapes, and twill weave to create a herringbone effect.

Rectangular woven blanket done in white, grey and black s-spun wool. Individual warp yarns at top, looped warps at bottom. The ones at the bottom are longer. White warps are used along one side of the weaving (36 strands at top), however, the majority of the warps are grey in colour. At the top two rows of double strand twining in black, are followed by several rows where the wefts pass over two warps at a time. Different coloured wefts are used for this portion of the twining in order to create blocks of different colours (grey and white or grey and black). This is followed by the use of discontinuous wefts to create a black wavy line on a white background. The block designs repeat in different colour arrangements. In the centre of the weaving are two twill weave panels in white. They are separated by a wide band of grey twining, which features lozenges that are black on top and white on the bottom. The second twill weave panel is cut in half by a narrow band of twining in grey wool. A similar band of grey borders the lower edge of the panel. Small black and grey triangles on a white background follow. Black triangles on a grey background also trim the vertical edges of the white twill weave panels. The triangles are bordered by a white vertical stripe, followed by one in grey and then a black one. These continue across the bottom and connect to those on the other side.