Meet Coast Salish Artist
Andrea Fritz
Andrea is a Coast Salish Artist and Author from the Lyackson First Nation of the Hul’qumi’num Speaking Peoples on the West Coast of Canada. She learned West Coast Native art in the Victoria school district from Victor Newman (Kwagi-ulth).
Andrea strives to express her people’s history and all our futures using her art. She focuses on animals and scenes of the West Coast of Canada and our intricate relationships with them. Andrea works in the mediums of acrylic on canvas/wood, serigraph, vector art, and multimedia. She has had numerous shows of her work including at Eagle Feather Gallery, the Place Gallery and The Outpost at Ketchikan.
Andrea teaches Coast Salish art to students in the Victoria School District and throughout the province. Andrea has participated in community based art pieces including Oaklands walking signs, Sir James Douglas Elementary mural, and an elder gift from her nation for an Elder’s retreat to Lummi. Andrea plans to continue sharing her knowledge of the art as well as create new art to inspire change. She hopes to show the beauty of the people, places and animals in our corner of the world.
(Burried on the beach in Hul’q’umi’num’)Hand Pulled Serigraph, $150
Limited edition of 25, each signed and numbered.
Puneluxutth’
Later, when my grandmother was born, the Indian agents came and took my her to the Kuper island school. There was no longer a choice. As a result of what she suffered at that school, she was haunted with depression and ptsd. She was not able to raise her own daughters, causing my mother to be raised in foster care. This further extending our family’s disconnect from our people and culture. Even my great uncle was forced to go to Kuper island residential school. He escaped many times. One time he escaped and fled to Lyackson to hide out at my grandmother’s house. She hid him as best she could and helped him move as far away from the school as they could manage. All of these relatives of mine who attended the Kuper island Residential school could be considered the lucky ones. Many graves were found recently on the grounds of the old school. They are the graves of the hundreds of children who were not able to escape or survive the horrendous conditions of the school.
In this serigraph you can see a traditional plank house representing the intact culture of the Coast Salish. Next the waves of colonialism break apart the house on the beach and leave only poles buried in sand. This real place becomes a navigational marker for travel in the area but also as a reminder of the wonderful community that we once had on Penelakut and are reviving once again. The bones represent the actual bodies buried on the island but also the act of moving on from the trauma of those events. The sunrise and looking up towards the creator signifies the start of healing our people and the regaining of our cultural connections.
As it is now known, Penelakut is one of the Gulf islands in the Salish sea. It is where my great-grandmother, Eva Rice, was born. It was colonially known as Kuper island, and was the site of one of the worst residential schools in Canada. Gramma Eva eventually moved to Lyackson island to be with her husband and daughter. But when Eva was young she asked her father again and again if she could go to the residential school to learn to read and write english. Eventually, after much debate, she was allowed to go the Kuper island residential school. One night, not long after being there, my great grandmother had to climb out of a window to escape a fire. Using only a rope, she tried to climb out the second story window by herself. She fell and broke her leg. She was no longer allowed to attend that irresponsible school.
(Long beach/chest in Hul’q’umi’num’)Hand pulled Serigraph, $195
Limited edition of 20, each signed and numbered.
Tl’uqtinus
This area of the Fraser river has been used by the Qwutsun people for countless generations. Lyackson is one of many nations included in the Qwutsun people. We would all gather there in the late summer to fish for salmon. This nutritious food would keep us fed all winter long. We would also use the time at this great village site of hundreds of plank houses to gather, celebrate and trade. Losing this site and being forced to live on tiny reserves greatly diminished our peoples ability to care for ourselves and live fulfilling connected lives.
In this serigraph you can see two of our many plank houses on the long beach. Cliffs are visible upstream where we would use dip nets to catch fish. One of our sockeye salmon can be seen jumping out of the water. The sun is visible rising over this place as a symbol of the bright future all of the Qwutsun people now have due to the return of this important resource.
(Long beach/chest in Hul’q’umi’num’)Hand Pulled Serigraph, $250
Limited edition of 50, each signed and numbered.
Lyackson Creation
In this serigraph you can see a tall tree blowing in the wind and two sections of the broken tree in the water after it falls down. Abstract salmon are also visible in the water.
Lyackson means the top of the Douglas fir tree. What follows is the Creation story for Lyackson and Galliano islands in the Salish sea.
A very long time ago, before we were Lyackson mustimuhw (lyackson family), there was no land, only water, all around a tree. It was a large fir tree, the largest tree ever to exist. It was so large that people lived on it’s branches and bows. The people clung to the tree and lived as best they could high above the water on the narrow branches. Some days a friend, Sthuqi (sockeye salmon), would come and visit the people in the tree. Sthuqi’ loved to swim in the water, she loved it so much that she never left the water. She would bring her friends in the tree treats from the ocean. “These are Xixwe (urchin) from deep in the waters they will keep you strong.”
(CLICK HERE to continue reading)
(Little wood dog island in Hul’q’umi’num’)Hand Pulled Serigraph, $150
Limited edition of 30, each signed and numbered.
Swiqwmi’
In this Serigraph, you can see the salmon that our people collected for ourselves were also shared with the wool dogs. The wool dogs were often kept on small islands so they wouldn’t breed with the village dogs. In Swiqwmi’ off Nanaimo, they were kept on a small peninsula in the harbour. You can also see the wool leaving the dog in the serigraph and winding around a spindle and whorl on the main island. This is how we turned the wool into yarn for weaving into blankets.
The Coast Salish People once bread and cared for a little breed of dog. The Salish Wool dog was a specific breed of dog that was kept for it’s beautiful and warm fur. Our people would brush out our dogs a couple times a year and use that wool along with other natural fibres to create blankets. These blankets would keep us warm in the cold winter months but were also symbols of wealth. They were a central part of our culture and class system making the dogs very valuable and important in the culture. Any one who owned a pack of these dogs were rich in the resources needed to keep them healthy and rich in the skills needed to create the blankets from their wool. The little wool dogs were much like todays dogs in that they were cherished members of the family. A favourite wool dog would often sleep with their owner and be generously cared for. These dogs were also kept in a very controlled environment where they were not allowed to breed with the village/hunting dogs. They were also fed a rich diet of meat both to keep their coats healthy but also to keep their souls happy.
For further scientific, historic and cultural information on the Coast Salish wool dog please check out “The Teachings of Mutton” a new book by Coast Salish co-authors and knowledgeable scientist and historians.
Myself included.
I will also have a children’s book coming out in May 2026 called “Wool dog warms his family”. It is the fourth book in my Coast Salish tales series and will include a section talking about the importance of the dogs to my people. Huych’q’u.
(place of salal in Hul’q’umi’num’)Hand Pulled Serigraph, $195
Limited edition of 25, each signed and numbered.
T’eet’qe
In this serigraph you can see what is now know as Shingle point on Lyackson (Valdez) island. It was known as a place of salal due to the abundance of this delicious berry. This place of salal could be used as a navigational point or as a place to come and harvest the natural resource in great numbers for storage and later use.
Behind the shell midden beach are high cliffs covered in tall Douglas fir trees. To the north is a beach covered in giant boulders on which my children and I would spend many summer retreats adventuring on and around. To the south, represented by the clam, is the largest clam garden in the salish sea. We would care for and harvest the clams. Using our knowledge of clam garden building techniques to make one of the most productive areas in our territory.
To this day, this site holds great meaning for our people. We gather here every year to build community connections and learn about our culture and the land.
(Place of cow parsnip in Hul’q’umi’num’)Hand Pulled Serigraph, $195
Limited edition of 26, each signed and numbered.
Hwsaaqw'um
This area is now known as Holland creek in Ladysmith. It was once a place where the Coast Salish would come and collect the amazing fresh vegetable of cow parsnip. Cow parsnip is a tall flowering plant. When it is young we would collect the main shoot, peel it and eat the inner section. It apparently tastes like a lemony cucumber and has many important vitamins and minerals. It is a nice treat at the start of spring when many fruits are not yet available.
One thing to remember about cow parsnip is that once its mature, you should not even touch it. Getting the sap on your skin and then exposing that to sunlight will give a very nasty burn. Cow parsnip loves to grow in this dense moist forest where the creek provides some open area for the plant to get bright sun to thrive.
This area is one of my favourite hikes and a thing that I love about Hwsaaqw’um is that the creek itself flows like a cow parsnip grows. With little off-shoots at even intervals. I enjoyed representing this in my serigraph. I also included the steepness of the valley created by this creek. The local indigenous peoples of the area have taking it upon themselves to care for this waterway and hopefully one day soon, the salmon that once swam the waters here will again be seen jumping upriver.
(Cliffs in Hul’q’umi’num’)Hand Pulled Serigraph, $150
Limited edition of 28, each signed and numbered.
Sqw’uxw
The cliffs on Lyackson island are one of the most beautiful sites anyone can see in the Salish sea. These towering sandstone cliffs have been carved out by the ocean in to cute little pockets in places and in other places they seem to rise straight up from the deep over a hundred feet high.
Seen in this serigraph are some of the towering cliffs as well as a place called “hole in the wall” where the cliffs have been eaten away by a creek. This gives one of the few areas, or holes, in the wall where one can access the island without having to scale sheer cliff. The high cliffs of Lyackson gave a wonderful vantage point for the defence of the Salish sea from northern invaders. Because of this our people were known as the defenders of the Salish sea. From these high cliffs we could spot approaching vessels and attack from above. Now a days, most people get to enjoy these cliffs from the comfort of kayaks and pleasure boats but they were once much more.
(Gathering people together to help support each other in Hul’q’umi’num’)Hand Pulled Serigraph, $135
Limited edition of 19, each signed and numbered.
Q’apthut Ts’its’uwatul’
Lyackson has existed off reserver for generations due to many factors including the remoteness of our original reserves, the nomadic nature of our traditions, as well as the generation trauma caused by colonialism.
Recently (2024), our Nation received an additions to reserve lands on Vancouver island. This is something that has been fought for through decades of litigation. Our new reserve is accessible for our people for easy travel, proximity to water and power as well as closeness to the many places that our people now call home.