Spirit of the West Coast Story

This painting was born from listening to the ancestral memory of the West Coast—etched in roots and rivers, in salmon returning home, in birdsong threading through dusk-lit cedars. The stories carried by tide and in the living presence of the many Indigenous Nations who have cared for and been in relationship with these lands and waters since time immemorial.

Memory is not metaphor—it is relationship. Science now echoes what Indigenous knowledge has always held: trauma and resilience are carried forward, shaping how we live, respond, and remember. Just as soil shapes the roots of a tree, our lineages and landscapes imprint our nervous systems, guiding us toward survival, resilience, and kinship.

Listening to ancestral relational intelligence teaches us that repair is both possible and necessary. To live in right relation is to take responsibility: to mend what has been severed, and to lean into reciprocity with plants, animals, waters, and one another. Indigenous teachings remind us that story, ceremony, and care can restore balance—guiding us back into ecosystems of abundance, where humans are not extractors but participants, and where gardens, rivers, and forests thrive alongside community.