Northcoast Net

The area of the lower Skeena River, encompassing the communities of Prince Rupert and Port Edward and stretching along the North Coast of British Columbia, is a source area for artists. Its history of natural, cultural and creative exchange is epic, alive and unbroken.

Recently, a diverse group of Northcoast artists and community groups have come together to create an innovative community project -- Northcoast Net. The focus of this project will be the creation of a salmon gill-net made of stinging nettle fibres in the traditional Aboriginal way. This type of net was once used Coastwide in B.C., a tradition which will be revisited and regained through this project.

Through guidance from our elders, the community groups involved will organize people of all ages, nations and walks of life to participate in the collection of nettles, the processing and spinning of the fibres, and the creation of the net. The project will run between February, 1998, and June, 1999, with invitations given to all Northcoast communities, native and non-native, including the Skeena and Nass River regions, to take part. They will share knowledge and learn together, build new relationships and create new community ties.

The nettle-fibre net will be the focal point in a multimedia display and website, called FibreNet, which will allow a wider dissemination of information about our rich northern cultural heritage. The net will be used ceremonially and then become the central point of an exhibit which will showcase oral histories, a video presentation of the project, interpretational panels, netmaking tools, and models of how these nets were used. The exhibit will be a tapestry of our cultural past and present, housed at North Pacific Cannery Village Museum.

Overall, this initiative will celebrate and encourage artistic vision within the community. It will establish a sound process of working together -- a community network which may further develop beyond its completion to encompass other community art projects.

Northcoast Net received $57,000 from the Artists and Communities Program, a pilot program jointly funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, B.C. Arts Council, Vancouver Foundation, and the Assembly of B.C. Arts Councils. Because this is a pilot program, there is a tremendous amount of research and documentation of it. People across Canada will know what we have accomplished through this project, what obstacles we have overcome, and how artists and community groups have worked together toward a common goal.

In B.C., there were over 80 applications for the Artists and Communities Program. We were one of the five applications chosen in the Province.