MARIANNE NICOLSON

“With the rise and fall of global Indigenous activism and political protection of the land so too will there be a corresponding rise and fall of catastrophic environmental disaster.” Before there was light in the world there were supernatural beings who inhabited the earth. For the zawada’enuxw of Kingcome Inlet their ancestor was a wolf named Kawadilikala. When the flood came he built a catamaran of canoes tied together and loaded food supplies and his family aboard. Letting loose a plaited rope of extraordinary length the catamaran rose until it reached the top of the mountain Bibanadi (some say Ḱaxsidza’yi). While the flood waters were boiling at their most violent some of the canoes broke away to land on other mountain tops to become the ancestors of other nations. The canoe that Kawadilikala had placed his treasures in also broke away, landing on a nearby mountain top and turning to stone. Through preparation and foresight the ancestors of the Dzawada’enuxw survived the flood. When the waters receded they returned from the mountain, removed their wolves clothing and became human.

Kawadilikala wished to know if there were other nations who had also survived the flood so he howled four times facing four different directions. The first three times there was no answer. On the fourth try he was answered by the Hoyalas (now an extinct nation). Some say it was the Gusgamuxw who live on Vancouver Island. The Hoyalas howled too and were answered by the Ahausat, a nation of the Nuuchah-nulth.

Flood stories like the one narrated above are an aspect of almost every coastal nation in B.C. They often share an aspect which tells of how other nations broke away and were established alluding to a common origin. This shared historical narrative is not just limited to Indigenous Coastal peoples however but is shared by peoples worldwide who share stories of a great flood which occurred and which people survived, such as the Christian narrative of Noah. As such they have an international character. It is this intersection of international experience of water based catastrophe and the survival of this catastrophe that serves as inspiration for the proposed artwork. Using the historical narrative as a reference, the artwork considers the modern contemporary dilemma of global warming, which has become the greatest challenge of the 21st Century and uses the ancient flood stories as a way to reflect on our capacity to anticipate and problem solve water catastrophes such as intensified hurricanes, unprecedented flooding and rising sea levels today.”

— Marianne Nicolson, 2021

Marianne Nicolson is an artist activist of the Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw First Nations. The Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw Nations are part of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwak’wala speaking peoples) of the Pacific Northwest Coast. She is trained in both traditional Kwakwaka’wakw forms and culture and contemporary gallery and museum-based practice. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design (1996), a Master of Fine Arts (2000) from the University of Victoria, as well as a Master of Arts (2005) in Linguistics and Anthropology and a PhD (2013) in Linguistics and Anthropology with a focus on space as expressed in the Kwak’wala language. Nicolson works as a Kwakwaka’wakw cultural researcher and historian, as well as an advocate for Indigenous land rights. Her practice is multidisciplinary encompassing photography, painting, carving, video, installation, monumental public art, writing and speaking. All her work is political in nature and seeks to uphold Kwakwaka’wakw traditional philosophy and worldview through contemporary mediums and technology. Exhibitions include the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia; The Vancouver Art Gallery, The National Museum of the American Indian in New York, Nuit Blanche in Toronto, Ontario, Museum Arnhem, Netherlands and many others. Major monumental public artworks are situated in Vancouver International Airport, the Canadian Embassy in Amman, Jordan and the Canadian Embassy in Paris, France.