The sacred salmon journey
Description: The sacred salmon journey
This mural is an Indigenous representation of the salmon lifecycle and the connections of salmon to land, water, sky and people. The artist Clayton Gauthier is a Cree/Dakelh Artist who resides in Prince George, BC. Clayton works with youth in the school district and in his home community to share art and storytelling. In this piece, Clayton honours the salmon’s journey and all they gift us. We share gratitude for all the gifts that salmon provide.
All of these animals have gifts and responsibilities to mother earth. They have been here since the beginning and honour their responsibilities every day. We also have responsibilities to the land, water and sky. We need to do our best to stay in balance and the salmon provides a lot of that for us, giving us health, wealth and prosperity.
- Salmon: feed all in their path - from the mountains to the sea. The circle depicts salmon’s lifecycle; salmon travel from rivers to the ocean (feeding the orcas) and return to the rivers (feeding our forests, insects and animals)
- Eagle: sits in the spiritual and physical world at the same time as shown by the moon, sun and stars. Inside the eagle’s wings are feathers which represents friendship, honour and the path of life. Feathers are used in many ceremonies. The eagle sits in the spirit world and the physical world at the same time, the feathers bless us with their gifts of love, loving all that the salmon provides for.
- Sea lion: symbol of strength and travel.
- Bear: protector of the animal kingdom; feeds the forest and themselves with the salmon.
- Beaver: teaches productivity and teamwork; creates a greater variety of habitats for plants and animals.
- Ceremony: celebrate through drum and song, giving thanks to the salmon.
- Plants: used for medicine; fertilized by salmon’s bodies.
- Harvesting the salmon: is part of cultural identity, spirituality and way of life. Men and women work together to feed their children and teach the next generation through their thoughts and actions. The men are harvesting and the women are preparing the salmon.
- Moon and sun: symbols of rebirth, strength and power like the salmon. We all flow with grandfather sun and grandmother moon. They are in balance like the salmon that honour us by returning each year.
Salmon’s prayer
“Creator, we thank you for all that we have been gifted with… water, land and sky. We thank you for all that the salmon provide for us… we thank you for the food, nourishment, health and prosperity that you gift us each day. You provide for the crawlers, the swimmers, the four legged, the two legged, the flyers and the medicine. Keep doing your powerful work and we will do ours... We love you for all that you do. ~ Musi snachailya (Thank you, you honour us)”
Clayton would like to humbly thank Elders Tom Reece from Ts’imshian territory and Violet Bozoki from Dakelh territory for their support on this piece.
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