Rupert Scow at the HUB

THE BASKET OF STORIES

The Beatin’ Stick told by Tad Hargrave, Weaving Baskets with Cari Burdett. Many of us live in a time and place with so little of the basket of community left to carry us and to give us a place to thrash about in. These evenings, held in a cozy yurt in Duncan, will be two parted. In the first part, you will be engaged in the process of basket making, weaving together real baskets, by hand with real plants. Don’t worry if you have no skill. You will learn. The second part of the evening will be hearing and exploring the troubles and tributaries, travails and triumphs of community through the medium of an old, European folk tale. December 19th, 2pm - 5pm Lila Music Centre Yurt, 3228A Gibbins Rd, 250 710 4174, tadlington@gmail.com, Register at https://basketofstories. eventbrite.ca Sliding Scale $20 - $40, no one turned away for lack of funds.

Carver Rupert Scow

There is an exciting new activity taking place at The Hub at Cowichan Station. Rupert Scow, carver and artist, is carving a totem pole, and he is inviting the community to come and share the process of this special project.

Rupert is Kwikwasut’inuxw “The people of the Bear,” from the village of Gwa’yasdams on Gilford Island near Alert Bay. He is a skilled artist and carver, learning as a young man and coming from a lineage of carvers. He began carving this totem pole at Roberts Creek several years ago from a Western red cedar log gifted to him by a friend, Andrew Dunkerton. He continued working on it after a move to the Lower Mainland when his progress was interrupted, first by a stroke in 2016 and then by the pandemic. When Rupert moved to Vancouver Island, the pole moved with him, eventually to the Cowichan Valley. Throughout all that time, Rupert remained committed to carving, first learning to use his left hand to carve after the stroke and then gradually regaining the use of his right hand. He is committed to sharing his passion for carving with others, and he has done so in many ways, including as a volunteer with the Cowichan Brain Injury Society and with the Cowichan Valley Arts Council. It was through the Arts Council that he met Lyndon Crossman, who is also a member of the Cowichan Community Workshop Co-op at The Hub. It was Lyndon who suggested that Rupert could perhaps finish his totem carving there.

Rupert has been welcomed to The Hub, on the traditional land of the Quw’utsun people where he now resides and continues to create art, teach others, and share his storytelling. At a ceremony and feast at The Hub in October, Rupert was given a blessing from the Quw’utsun people to complete the carving of his family totem in this place. Rupert’s pole has already travelled through several different places and communities. People from those communities, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, came together to the welcome feast to meet each other, to witness, and to celebrate. Since then, Rupert, Lyndon, and another carver, Drew Barnes, have been working on the pole under the big tent at The Hub. They will continue carving this Fall for as long as weather permits, and they all welcome visitors to stop by and learn more about the pole and talk with Rupert about his carving.

Written by Rupert Scow and Barbara Purves