Resurfacing is a project arising from investigations into the hunting and gathering processes involved in art as examined in Interdisciplinary Forum 333 at Emily Carr in the summer of 2007, taught by M. Simon Levin and Anne-Marie Slater.
The project was initially intended to commemorate the abundant food resources that were harvested by the Squamish, Musquem and Tsleil’waututh First Nations from the streams draining into the eastern tidal flats of False Creek, known as Skwahchays. The largest stream became known as China Creek. It has transformed into an agency of capturing and harnessing community interest in restoring China Creek as a surface stream, or “daylighting” it. The goal of the project will be to work with existing organizations and agencies to return salmon and trout stocks to a buried watershed in much the same way that it has been done at Spanish Banks Creek on the West Side and Beaver Creek in Stanley Park. In the process, continued community involvement in on-going community gardens and commons can be extended and expanded upon, producing an ecological and educational focus for neighbourhood stewardship.
Resurfacing is a site installation, demonstrated at North China Creek Park in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, using harvested willow bows from the Means of Production Artists Garden. The bows are stripped of their leaves, folded back on themselves and carved with a scalpel to resemble a salmon in the act of jumping up river on its way to spawn. The design is Native referenced signifying the primacy of fish as a First Nations food source and the region as a traditional hunting and collecting ground. The bows are installed between the path and the Means of Production public.
The location is appropriate because the path connects the lower part of the park along Great Northern Way to the upper slope at 6th and St. Catherine’s Street, where the Means of Production Garden is planted. Historically, two smaller intermittent streams flowed north between St. Catherine’s and Glen Drive, one of which entered the wetland at the mouth of present day Windsor Street in the vicinity of the bottom of the Means of Production slope.
In the future, single bows will be dug into the path of lost streams in the area as a reminder of the rich ecosystem that sustained the landscape for millennia. They will function as conspicuous yet poetic calls to the community to consider working together to breathe new life into an open, regenerated riparian urban stream system. Similar to the fish painted beside storm drains a decade ago where residents are still reminded to be wary of what chemicals are put into drains, the willow fish will suggest to community members and passers-by, the presence of the streams covered below them, and the possibility of a rejuvenating a stream system. The project will be an extension of the care and stewardship for the commons already so evident and active in the community, such as: community gardens at Broadway and Clark, beside Kind Edward Campus at 8th and Keith, in the 300 block of East 6th , the path adjoining the Granview Cut east of Victoria Drive and the numerous “bubble” corners and traffic calming circles of the neighbourhood streets. In a community stereotyped by crime and social problems, the project metaphorically and literally would bring to the surface the positive energy of collective stewardship and community integrity of the multi-cultural communities.
This project carries on the efforts of other organizations that have spearheaded similar efforts, such as the Vancouver Salmon and Stream Society, the Brewery Creek Society, and the Public Dreams Society. Government organizations such as Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Vancouver Parks Board, the provincial government’s Urban Salmon Habitat Program and corporations like B.C. Hydro are currently involved in other stream restoration projects. The China Creek Resurfacing project extends these initiatives to connect False Creek ultimately to Trout Lake where a network of green space already exits, including China Creek Park, Cedar Cottage Park and Clark Park. The willow fish of Resurfacing are visual reminders to the community to consider the possibility.
