A new fire truck featuring Indigenous art is about to hit the streets of West Vancouver, B.C.
The project came from a desire within the West Vancouver Fire Department to demonstrate its commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
Asst. Chief Jeremy Calder says the West Vancouver Police Department and North Vancouver RCMP have a vehicle that features First Nations art, and the fire department wanted to emulate that.
The department met with Squamish artist Xwalacktun, whom they commissioned to create the piece that would be featured on the new truck.
“We shared words that we hoped the images would represent things like family, community protection, collaboration, strength and resilience,” Calder told CBC’s The Early Edition host Stephen Quinn.
Xwalacktun has created all sorts of art for various entities in B.C., including carved doors for B.C. Hydro, a set of doors each at the University of Victoria and the Gordon Smith Gallery in North Vancouver, B.C., and two sets of carved doors at the West Vancouver School Board office.
Xwalacktun’s design depicts the Lions Gate Bridge, representing the bridging of communities and cultures. (Supplied by Commercial Emergency Equipment)
Xwalacktun says his work for the fire department was inspired by the idea of the Lions Gate Bridge literally bridging communities and cultures together.
The design features a canoe with paddles up, representing peace and respect between cultures.
He says the pair of eyes are a reminder that we’re always being watched.
“It has a wolf design to represent family,” Xwalacktun said. “We’re all family.”
Calder says the work on the new truck is “so powerful and just perfectly captured the intent and meaning of this collaboration.”
Shared ceremonies
The truck is expected to hit the streets later this month. But before it can officially join the fleet, it will go through a private ceremony combining both Squamish traditions and a fire department ritual.
“The traditional push in ceremony includes transferring of water from the old truck to the new, washing the truck and pushing it into the hall by hand, as was done in the past when the fire apparatus were drawn by horses,” Calder said.
The new truck is meant to symbolize the fire department’s commitment to inclusion, equity and diversity. (Supplied by Commercial Emergency Equipment)
Following that, a brushing ceremony will be held to cleanse the truck, using cedar boughs.
“This removes any negative energy and also symbolizes the washing of the truck and bringing life to the vehicle,” Calder said.
From there, the truck will be pushed into the firehall by hand, signifying that it’s ready for service. Then, those in attendance will be invited to speak about what the ceremony means for them.
“We used to hear some of our chiefs and our elders say, you know, we were invisible in our own land,” Xwalacktun said, adding that this initiative demonstrates the non-Indigenous community acknowledging the existence of the Squamish Nation.
Calder described the truck and the ceremonies as a step toward reconciliation.
“Our hope is that the message is clear when you see this artwork on the truck that we acknowledge and respect our Indigenous community and we’re committed to reconciliation, equity, diversity and inclusion. We’ve already found that the artwork sparks conversations of learning about these topics and as well as exploring ways that we can further work collaboratively together.”
Xwalacktun will be attending the ceremony together with his seven-year-old son.
“It’ll be an awesome day for me to see all this happening,” he said.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
