Aesthetic interventions as investigations into land theft, ecosystem erasure, real estate speculation, hazards, and resurgence for the Skwácháy̓s neighbourhood of central Vancouver
Skwácháy̓s [Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim] also known as “False Creek Flats” and before the inlet and tidal flats were filled with garbage in 1917-21, “False Creek East”
Skwácháy̓s [Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim] is the correct name for False Creek Flats describing “water coming up from ground beneath.” The thick line was roughly the high tide line prior to 1917 and the thinner line represents the low tide line with the areas below being marine and part of the inlet.
“water coming up from ground beneath.” A resurgent edge of the marine inlet, False Creek south-east of Prior and Station Streets, at the pre-1917 low tide line of the north-western corner of Skwácháy̓s 2021 March 11 * 1P3A9876 north-western Skwácháy̓s near the pre-1917 low tide line looking south from Prior and National Street with a view of the train station constructed a century ago 2021 March 11 * P3A9885
The village closest to Skwácháy̓s was Sen̓áḵw a kilometre further west near the mouth of False Creek. The depopulation of Skwácháy̓s was part of forced removal of the communities and land management regimens of the three First Nations (spanning two Salish languages) from what is today the City of Vancouver.
1913 July 7 the extreme eastern part, east of Main Street, of a panoramic photograph of all of False Creek (Vancouver Archive AM54-S4-3- PAN N161A)
EVENT | PLOT @ Access Gallery | Scenes from a disappearance… | 730-10PM | MAY 24
May 24, 2019 7:30 pm. to 10 p.m.
PLOT @ Access Gallery
222 East Georgia St.
Vancouver BC V6A 1Z7 Canada
Scenes from a disappearance: A (decolonial) ecological breakdown cabaret for the centennial of the destruction of Skwácháy̓s, “water coming up from ground beneath”
entrance is free
A century ago, the sea, salt marshes, and Salish gathering sites that thrived in what is now bounded by Main, Union, Clark, and Great Northern Way in central Vancouver were filled with a train station, garbage, and dirt from the digging of the Grandview Cut. But Skwácháy̓s, translated from Skwxw7mesh xwumixw (Squamish) as “water coming up from ground beneath,” has not gone quietly, and those seas and marshes are re-surging. Join artists active in the “still underwater” project for an ‘open mic’ night (without the mic) for a number of short multimedia, spoken, and spontaneous performances on the aftermath of ecological breakdown in the DTES. After introductions from hosts Gordon Brent Brochu-Ingram and Alex Grünenfelder, artists and other cultural producers have eight minutesto present.
Skwácháy̓s not gone quietly, and those seas and marshes are resurging. Join artists active in the “still underwater” project for an ‘open mic’ night (without the mic) for a number of short multimedia, spoken, and spontaneous performances on the aftermath of ecological breakdown in the DTES. After introductions from hosts Gordon Brent Brochu-Ingram and Alex Grünenfelder, artists and other cultural producers have eight minutes to present.
RSVP kexminfieldstation@gmail.com to reserve a spot in the line-up and specify any media or spatial needs.
**
ḴEXMIN Field Station are the current occupants in Access Gallerys PLOT space, from 8 April to 24 May, 2019; conducting their project still underwater: tracing Skwácháy̓s in todays False Creek Flats.
ḴEXMIN Field Station is a loose collective of Indigenous and non-Indigenous site-based artists, environmental researchers, scientists, and designers focused on the waters, shores and islands of the Salish Sea. Currently located on Salt Spring Island, the field station exists as a research, learning and experimentation space to nurture conversations spanning traditional Indigenous knowledge, modern science, and contemporary culture. Individuals currently contributing to still underwater include: Métis public artist and environmental scientist, Gordon Brent Brochu-Ingram (currently coordinating the 2019 events at PLOT), Salish curator Rose Spahan, public artist and designer Alex Grnenfelder, site-based artist Oliver Kellhammer, Musqueam weaver and public artist Debra Sparrow, and community-engaged environmental artist Sharon Kallis, amongst an evolving group of affiliates.
False Creek flatlands. Vancouver Public Library Number: 42026. Photographer: Vancouver Province Newspaper
This ditch from sometimes in the 1960s indicates the amount of water that was still flowing into False Creek Flats. We can assume that further east, the standing water was fresh and coming from the Trout Lake watershed that drains into Skwácháy̓s. But further west near the train station, there still some intrusion of salt water back on to the land — a process of marine reclamation now intensifying with sea level rise.
1935-1936 – Rooftop view looking North over False Creek flats. Vancouver Public Library Archive Number: 7917. Photographer: Leonard Frank.
These views looked north over the eastern end of False Creek flats with the current bridge connecting East 1st Avenue (and Terminal Avenue) to Clark Drive already built. Vernon Drive that currently goes under that bridge had not been constructed. The cattle grazing is an important indicator. In contrast to much of the western end of Skwácháy̓s that was filled with garbage, this area, the south-eastern portion of the tidal flats, was filled with soil from the Grandview Cut that was excavated for the rail lines to the recently constructed, Pacific train terminal built at the western end of Skwácháy̓s.
Shelter in the ‘Jungle’ at the City dump, 1931. City of Vancouver Archives, Re N3.2
The Great Depression brought a great deal of homelessness to Vancouver especially for young single males. As the crisis intensified over the 1930s, shacks and shanties were built in ‘The Jungle’ [with every North American having a ‘The Jungle’ shanty area in those years] along the north side of what was Skwácháy̓s — areas that remained the lowest, the most poorly filled (often with garbage), and still vulnerable to flooding with exceptional tides.
Even into the 1920s, the City of Vancouver, and associated levels of government and private enterprises, were undecided about the fate of Skwácháy̓s. Part of the city was growing around the inlet and tidal flats with some populations enjoying it. The efforts to fill the basin and then sell off the land for profit did not really intensify until after World War I. But most of these ‘lands’ remained tidal were were impossible to build on aside from temporary shacks. So in this 1932 ‘plan’ much of the tidal shoreline of Skwácháy̓s was recognized and was to remain intact – for a time.
The most frenzied period of destruction, as in the term ‘reclamation’ that was used at the time, of False Creek East and sometimes called ‘hole-in-bottom’, was in 1917-21 as part of the construction of the railway station on Main Street. Along with the railway station, the associated ‘Grandview Cut’ rail route such much of the soil from that dig dumped into the inlet and salt marshes.
In the 1917 image, with the camera pointed due east, into False Creek East, a series of east-west bridges and dykes have been constructed but the northern side of the inlet, near today’s Great Northern Way, was largely unimpeded and still had some deep areas.
In the 1921 image, the centre of the image is due south towards Mount Pleasant along with the construction today’s Main Street a bit south of Terminal. False Creek East is on the far left of the image with tidal movement, passing under today’s Main Street, evident and a covered barged close to shore. As late as 1921, much of hole-in-bottom was still underwater.
captions:
upper photograph:
View of False Creek Flats east of Main Street March 10, 1917 by W.J. Moore Photo, Vancouver Archive Reference code AM54-S4-3-: PAN N87
lower photograph: 1921 June 30 Constructing Main Street Vancouver Archives PAN N158 – [View of the reclamation of False Creek Flats showing the reconstruction of Main Street at the bascule bridge]
photograph above: A view of False Creek East in 1917: directly east from the train station (at today’s Main and Terminal) with a north-south raised road in the horizon which is roughly today’s Clark Drive
photograph below: A view of False Creek East in 1921: the south-west corner (with signs of deep water) around what is today just below Main Street and Great Northern Way
1918 January 3 the nearly completed “False Creek Station” that is today called “Pacific Central Station”
What is striking about this image is that the present location of Thornton Park was below sea level and a tidal beach adjacent to the bridge under Westminster Street (that is today’s Main Street).
