Winter 2023

SOLO EXHIBITION - SARAH JIM, W̱SÁNEĆ ARTIST
January/ February 2023, Mayne Island Library

The Mayne Island Library hosted a solo exhibition of thirteen works by Sarah Jim in January and February 2023. The Mayne Island Library, working with the Campbell Bay Music Festival Society, installed an exhibit of Sarah Jim’s work at the Library, including pieces created for the ethnobotanical garden, editioned prints, and paintings from private collections. Mayne Islanders Tina Farmilo and Jennifer Iredale, along with arts administrator Micki Stirling, worked with Indigenous Curator Rose Spahan from W̱SÁNEĆ and artist Sarah Jim to bring this exciting exhibit to life - the first exhibit by a W̱SÁNEĆ artist on SḴŦAḴ / Mayne Island.

Curator’s statement:

”Sarah Jim’s work is inspired by the beauty of the lands and waters that the W̱SÁNEĆ people have stewarded since time immemorial. A visual artist from the small village of Tseycum in W̱SÁNEĆ, Sarah claims W̱SÁNEĆ, Mexican, Russian-Jewish, and English ancestry. A University of Victoria Fine Art graduate, Sarah’s work and indigenous teachings are self-taught and community oriented; reflections of land-based relationships; ecosystems, human and non-human kin connections, and the power of restorative practices. Her art practice is one way she advocates for indigenous ways of being and native ecosystems and it is a powerful form of medicine. This is the first exhibit by a W̱SÁNEĆ artist on SḴŦAḴ / Mayne Island.

ŚTEṈIST ȻENTOL EȻSIÁ TĆÁNȻE / Walking Forward with the Past is an island project that will include an outdoor exhibition acknowledging the First Peoples of W̱JOȽEȽP whose territory includes this island called SḴŦAḴ. Through carvings by Chazz Elliot and Matt Parlby, two powerful traditional/contemporary artists from Tsartlip/W̱JOȽEȽP, and paintings by Sarah Jim, a contemporary emergent artist from TSEYCUM, these art works are correcting the erasure of the SENĆOŦEN speaking people from their homeland on SḴŦAḴ.

HÍSW̱ḴE” - Rose Spahan, Indigenous Curator