Month: February 2021

deep time, land theft, gentrification & displacement, marsh & marine ecosystems (erasure & resurgence), queer ecologies

Excavations down to the Skwácháy̓s beach to the east of the mouth of Scotia Creek

On a grey winter day, the view through the fence of the recently uncovered beach, that lined the south-western side of Skwácháy̓s, was unmistakable and breathtaking. A bit more than a century ago, there were beach-houses just above below what today is East 2nd Avenue. Today this pit contains a lot of water and is below current and projected sea levels.

Looking north, across Skwácháy̓s, from East 1st and Thornton, 2021 February 19 * 1P3A9727
The beach at low-tide on the south-west shore of Skwácháy̓s looking
north from Thornton and East 1st, 2021 February 19 * 1P3A9726
Looking north, across Skwácháy̓s, and into the excavated beach
from east of East 1st and Scotia, 2021 February 19 * 1P3A9727
Look west across what was once the south-western shore of Skwácháy̓s
from Thornton below East 1st, 2021 February 19 * 1P3A9701

Looking west, from Thornton below East 1st, down into the excavated beach on
the south-western shore of Skwácháy̓s, 2021 February 19 * 1P3A9703
Looking west, from Thornton below East 1st, down into the excavated beach
on the south-western shore of Skwácháy̓s, 2021 February 19 * 1P3A9708
Beyond low tide below the south-western shore Skwácháy̓s: a building on the other side of the most northerly tracks across from the north end of Thornton, 2021 February 19 * 1P3A9725
Looking north across Skwácháy̓s from East 2nd east of Scotia with the street
just above the historic high tide line of Skwácháy̓s, 2021 February 19 * 1P3A9699
Water from the excavated beach along the south-western shore of Skwácháy̓s being directed into storm drainage on East 1st east of Scotia (Creek), 2021 February 19 * 1P3A9733