The Collingwood School in West Vancouver contacted me (Thanks Kendra) about making some signs and benches for their new outdoor nature program they were creating in a beautiful section of forest on the property, which included a series of trails and outdoor learning spaces for the children to learn and experience nature. Kendra came across my work and asked if I would design and build some interpretive signs as well as two benches for observing nature.
The two signs explore the connections with local Indigenous heritage. The Ch’shaý Discovery Trail sign hangs near the entry to the Douglas Fir forest. Ch’shaý is the word for Douglas Fir in the Squamish First Nations language. The other sign is educational with the English, Latin and Indigenous language words for the Douglas Fir tree. These signs also have a design with a small cap on the top of each to help protect it from the weather and also provide a lovely colour variant. They are made from locally salvaged old growth red cedar driftwood which I split by hand and sand to finish. Carved and painted by hand with OneShot signpaint and 2 coats of OSMO exterior UV protection oil.
The two benches are different in that one has a back and armrests and one doesn’t. Both have great colouration throughout the cedar, showing the natural orange tones, but with streaks of darker possibly iron stained wood. The idea of creating unique functional outdoor furniture from the very trees that existed in these forests is part of the education these kids are receiving. (Red Cedar is a common tree in the coastal Douglas Fir forests of southern BC) Cedar is one of the few trees that will split by hand (even more so the old growth wood) and for this reason, along with its natural rot resistence, was used extensively by coastal first nations. They would split entire planks for building houses or pull the bark directly off a standing cedar tree without killing the tree. The scars from this can still be seen in forests everywhere here, they are now called CMT’s (culturally modified trees) and are a direct link to the management of the forest land by first nations. I am using this ancient knowledge that anyone can learn by spending time working with the cedar. All the wood for these benches was salvaged from old growth red cedar driftwood on the beaches around the Salish Sea here in southern BC. I split the wood by hand and used mortise and tenon joinery to assemble the benches. They are sanded smooth for comfort and ease of finishing with OSMO exterior UV protection oil.
I am so grateful to the school and Kendra for my participation in this project helping kids connect with nature and how it is tied to our local first nations.
