The recording of our history is usually thought of in terms of the written or spoken word - the narrative. While storytelling is certainly a way history comes alive for us, it isn't always this way. We have a wonderful local example that illustrates the point.
A few years ago, Anna Tremere, the president of the Riverview Hospital Historical Society, learned of two weaving looms that had been used for several years in the hospital but were now designated as surplus. Always resourceful and pragmatic, she contacted the hospital facilities management and asked their permission to put these looms to use. With their blessing, the looms were made available to Place des Arts in Coquitlam's Heritage Square to use in its outreach program.
Place des Arts loaned the looms to two Port Coquitlam community schools, Pitt River middle and Central elementary. As a fibre arts instructor at Place des Arts, I was able to offer my expertise in support of the loom project.
Pitt River middle school was in the process of building a new facility. The community school co-ordinator suggested a collaborative art piece that everyone in the school could add to would be a wonderful addition to the new school and a proud keepsake for all the participants. The loom was to serve as the focus for creating a collaborative tapestry project.
Early in the process, Central elementary principal Nadine Tambellini saw a small mock-up of the Pitt River middle project, loved the idea and proposed the creation of a "Social Fabric" project for her school as well.
In January 2012, students and staff at Central had the opportunity to learn about weaving by adding a row or two of their own work to a beautiful community tapestry to be displayed in the school for years to come. Sometimes, people use the phrase "the fabric of our community," meaning all of the things that go together to make up our community, such as schools, homes, streets and people. By working together and keeping this in mind, an amazing hand-woven piece of "Social Fabric" was created with threads gathered from all parts of the school community.
Any and all threads were welcome, with participants encouraged to choose something of special meaning in their personal history. Contributions were diverse: ribbons from baby booties, a favourite shoelace, a special chain or necklace, fabric strips from a special article of clothing, hand-spun threads, lace, string, cedar bark, wire, Christmas tinsel and audio tapes of favourite music. The colours and fibres were as varied as the people who participated, adding beauty and diversity to the cloth. Some families and friends joined or braided threads together as one.
The first tapestry project at Central elementary was a huge success. Everyone involved was thrilled with the finished product and excited to see it hang it in the school. Working on the success of this first project, two more were planned.
The original Pitt River middle school tapestry project was created last month and quickly hung in the old school. There were a couple of especially meaningful donations added to the tapestries. Terry Fox went to Mary Hill junior high school years ago, so the Terry Fox society donated a pair of shoelaces from the 30th anniversary of the Terry Fox Run and Poco Building Supplies, a business that is truly part of the Port Coquitlam and Pitt River middle school social fabric, generously donated the doweling to hang the tapestries.
When the new school is completed, the three tapestries will be moved to their permanent home.
As well, project notebook was created documenting each of these projects with the signatures of all who participated, small swatches of the materials used, photos and other important information.
It is hoped that this project model can be offered to other School District 43 schools to introduce even more children to the art and joy of weaving.
The Riverview Hospital Historical Society was delighted to learn of the project made possible by the re-use of the hospital's languishing looms. Tools that are part of our collective history being used to enable so many individuals to contribute pieces of their personal histories to create a community art piece of beauty and an enduring legacy.
Anna Tremere's effort to save and reuse the looms has come full circle. She has been invited to participate in one of the upcoming projects and will be adding her own piece of history to the weaving.
Our history is a tapestry of various events, developments and people. This metaphor has been realized in a tangible way with the social fabric project. These textured, woven pieces of art will remind us that we are united by a common thread. It is a profound example of our collective story.
Your History is a column in which, once a month, representatives of the Tri-Cities' three heritage groups writes about local history.
