Sept 22, 2000
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THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA Sept 22, 2000 |
 Vancouver Island’s famed Cowichan sweaters tell a story of tradition, artistry
by Robie Liscomb Long before outdoor wear made of Gore-Tex or polar fleece there were Cowichan sweaters — warm, waterproof and long-lasting. For nearly a century, the Coast Salish women of southern Vancouver Island have produced these distinctively patterned, hand-knit sweaters. Prime ministers, presidents and royalty have worn them, but until now, little has been told about the extraordinary aboriginal women who make them. Their story is now the subject of a one-hour film by Métis writer/director and UVic women’s studies professor Christine Welsh and her company, Prairie Girl Films. The Story of the Coast Salish Knitters weaves together rare archival footage and interviews with three generations of Cowichan, Penelakut and Tsartlip women, telling an inspiring tale of artistry, courage and cultural transformation. “I originally came to the story of the Coast Salish knitters because of the research of Sylvia Olsen,” explains Welsh. The two had worked together on Welsh’s previous film, Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle, the story of the survivors of the Kuper Island Indian Residential School. “I married into the Tsartlip Band 28 years ago,” says Olsen, “and I owned and operated a small sweater business for 15 years. Then I quit to go to UVic.” When it came time to choose a thesis topic for her UVic master’s degree in history, she decided to write about the Coast Salish knitters, to bring their story to light. “It’s a story that was hidden away in the deep recesses of B.C. history,” she explains. Long before the arrival of Europeans, Coast Salish people had a strong tradition of weaving. The women wove blankets using the hair of small dogs mixed with mountain goat wool traded from the mainland. These blankets represented cultural esteem and were the main form of currency in the Coast Salish economy, used for trade and ceremonial purposes. With the arrival of European settlers, Coast Salish women learned knitting and adapted this skill to create something distinctively theirs — the Cowichan sweater. They created their knit patterns without the use of dyes, using natural black, brown and white wool from sheep brought by the Europeans. Each Cowichan sweater is unique, incorporating designs —animals, birds, sea creatures and geometric shapes — that have been passed down from mother to daughter. Making the sweaters by hand involves much difficult work before knitting even begins. First, the women wash the wool by hand in boiling water so that it is clean yet retains the natural lanolin which makes the wool water-resistant. Then they clean and tease the wool and card it, combing it in one direction to ready it for the next step — spinning into yarn. Like the blankets before them, the sweaters these women knit have had great economic importance for the Coast Salish. In the film, women speak of staying up all night knitting a sweater so they would have money to buy groceries the next day. “There’s a common perception that the people of the West Coast lived by logging and fishing in the first half of the 20th century. That was certainly my perception,” says Welsh. “I had no idea of this hidden economy...that the Coast Salish women knit to put food on the table, to keep their families alive.” Over the decades, Coast Salish knitters have struggled with unscrupulous buyers offering low prices, with fluctuating supply and demand, and with increasing competition from imitations and the use of new high-tech fabrics. However, throughout the past century, Coast Salish women have continued producing these useful and beautiful garments — a symbol of their extraordinary resourcefulness, creativity and adaptability. |