First Nations Art displayed at US 2010 Olympic Coordination Office

24 August, 09

In keeping with the 2010 Winter Olympics tribute to Canadian Aboriginal people, U.S. Consulate General Vancouver's Olympics Coordination Team has installed several art pieces representative of local cultures, in cooperation with Hill's Native Art gallery in Gastown.

Visitors to the U.S. 2010 office complex can feel the cultural spirit of Canada's First Nations and Inuit people in the surroundings of totem poles, prints, paintings, and carved masks and panels. In the office entry is a 6-foot-2 totem pole entitled "The Eagle Mother" carved by Coast Salish artist Terry Horne. On it, Eagle is perched with Eaglet on a captured Salmon, depicting pride, joy, and love for family. It was carved last winter from a red cedar log estimated to be 500 years old. There is also a trio of prints by Kwakwaka'wakw/Coast Salish artist Maynard Johnny Jr. One print depicts Eagle; one print depicts Beaver, and the print between them depicts Frog, a creature who lives in two worlds and is known as the communicator. The three prints collectively can be seen as the ongoing dialogue between two friendly countries, and the common voice they have found.

"The U.S. Consulate General Vancouver team thanks Hill's Native Art Gallery for the opportunity to honor the community of First Nations in our Olympic Coordination Office," Frank Manganiello, Olympics Coordinator stated.