That Which Sustains Us is a long-term exhibition that explores the convergence of different knowledge traditions in the Vancouver area through an examination of people’s interactions with forests and their natural environment. It does so by showcasing traditional ecological knowledge related to forests; consequences of the deforestation and urbanization of Vancouver; and the possibility of returning to sustainable land use practices in the Greater Vancouver area. The thread that connects these narratives is the idea that culture ultimately shapes how people choose to interact with the natural world. Teachings that embrace stewardship leave less obvious traces on the land, when compared to historical viewpoints that commodified “natural resources” like wood and promoted the clearing of land as a pre-requisite of “ownership”. 

Community representatives from the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations, environmental historians, and forestry researchers, have attended consultation sessions to help shape thematic concepts for this project. The exhibition avoids using a narrative of progression, instead framing arboreal life through a set of lenses:

• Land and Water

• Food

• Movement

• Economy

• Home

Through these lenses, a story will emerge of Vancouver’s people and its cultures, expressed through their varied relationship to the rainforest. This exhibition was designed by Daniel Irvine, Principal Architecture, and Chad Manley - the design team behind Wild Things: The Power of Nature in Our Lives.

Learning from the forest

Ancestral Skills: Bark Tanning Fish Skin Leather

Follow Artist and Ancestral Skills Educator Janey Chang as she recounts her story of reconnecting with the land. While demonstrating fish skin leather making techniques and traditions, Janey shares the relevance of learning ancestral skills for finding balance in our busy lives.

Lessons from the Forest: Natural Dyeing with Mushrooms

Join wildlife ecologist and mushroom dyer Zoe McDonell as she delves into the process of creating beautiful dye pigments from mushrooms found in local forests. Discover how to ethically harvest mushrooms, steps of the dyeing process, and, most importantly, where you can learn how to safely forage mushrooms.

Languages from the Land

Projected on the walls of the exhibition, That Which Sustains Us, are a number of terms written in two Salish languages - hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim. These are the languages of the host nations of Vancouver. During the consultation process for the exhibition, one community member expressed that these Indigenous languages originate with the land and are shaped by it.

To capture this idea within the exhibition, exhibit designers Daniel Irvine and Chad Manley, devised this concept of a breathing landscape featuring floating words. In earlier designs the words were densely packed, as shown above, but later were separated into five different projections to populate the entire gallery. This also softened the effect, taking away the straight edges created in the earlier version.

The plants featured in the projection can also be found in the Courtyard Garden, visible through a window in the exhibition gallery. This online program funded by a Digital Now grant provides an opportunity for interested visitors, and language learners, to hear the correct pronunciation of the featured plant names. As both featured languages are endangered, we have created two separate pages to create resources that will be useful for teaching new language learners.

Indigenous Plant Names

This online program funded by a Digital Now grant provides an opportunity for interested visitors, and language learners, to hear the correct pronunciation of the featured plant names. As both featured languages are endangered, we have created two separate pages to create resources that will be useful for teaching new language learners.

Highlight Videos

Artefact Spotlight

Over time, dense forests have given way to urbanization and city parks, but forests remain symbolically vital to our sense of place. The First City Seal of Vancouver (H972.3.99a-b), circa 1880s, illustrates the city’s longstanding relationship with the forest.