The main entrance to Nanaimo’s hospital now has a permanent reminder of its connection to the Snuneymuxw First Nation.
In mid June, a ceremony was held at the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital to celebrate the unveiling of an aluminum sign designed by Coast Salish artist Noel Brown.
During the ceremony, Brown’s father, Snuneymuxw elder Jerry Brown, blessed the art and named it Big House, a house of healing, and thanked the doctors, nurses and administration staff of the hospital.
“We ask our creator for more support, to strengthen our facilities with more care and medicines,” said the artist’s father in a release. “Our cultural presentation is a reminder to give thanks for more healing, long-term care, and learn how to be kind and take care of each other.”
The artwork, which shows an eagle, bear and salmon in the longhouse, and eagles rising upward “carrying prayers to the creator,” was selected as the best design out of three by the elders in the hospital committee that Brown worked with.
The sign also lights up in the middle when dark outside.
“It makes me feel really good to have my art on there because they took care a lot of my people that were in there, when they get sick,” Brown said. “I know some that passed away in there and they took really good care of them so I feel very honoured and thankful that I got to do the art there because they took care a lot of my families.”
Brown’s work can be found all over the city, and includes a boat at Maffeo Sutton Park’s playground, the 15-metre totem pole also at the park, the Q’unq’inuqwstuxw Stadium sign on Third Street and the totem pole at Nanaimo’s Fire Station No. 1. His work can also be found in galleries and private collections internationally.
READ MORE: Welcome pole at Nanaimo’s Fire Station No. 1 represents firefighters’ efforts
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