Cowichan Culture Speaks Easy
Welcome to the online community storyboard and web-mapping platform for the Cowichan Valley. This project, brought to you by the Cowichan Valley Arts Council with financial backing from the BC Creative Communities initiative, tracks through photography and stories the cultural resources of the valley past, present and future.
Wait a second, what is culture anyway? Good question. Culture can be defined many ways but for the purpose of this project let us say that culture is a vibrant system of shared elements that link individuals to groups and groups to other groups and to the larger community. Those shared elements can be buildings, or events, or people, or songs, or food, or many different things. These things are acquired and transmitted, and for the purpose of this project, creative and commnitiy based. And it is through culture that communities define themselves and ultimately express themselves.
With that in mind, the Cowichan Culture Speaks Easy project contends that identity through place bubbles up by way of the creative gestures and cultural treasures that surround us. So what would you put on the map to define your own surroundings? What do you want to say through words and images about the culture that you experience or create?
We need your voice to add to the chorus!
About
As this is a user-generated platform, we welcome your involvement by submitting photographs and stories to the site as well as just have fun exploring the map and storyboard. There are three categories to choose from: Past, Present and Future.
The Past entries celebrate cultural resources from Cowichan Valley’s rich and varied historical record (what images are tucked away in your attic of cultural treasures of the valley from years ago).
The Present entries celebrate cultural resources that we see around us now (what creative things do you see and appreciate in your community).
And the Future entries suggest possible future projects that could be valuable cultural resources (what do you envision is still to be done).
So what was, what is, and what could be in this great valley of ours, though images and text.
Results
This dynamic and ever-evolving platform is a foundation for our continual understanding of the unique cultural treasures that line the back roads and main streets of all communities of the Cowichan Valley. Project leads in each area have conducted community dialogue sessions and will continue to engage residents to encourage their voices to be heard. Thank you to Brian Clark, Lori Treloar, Gord Iversen, Hebecca Montoril, Rhonda Vertefeuille, Sharon McNulty, Barry Strasbourg-Thompson, Richard Minardi, Nev Gibson and Frank Wall.
Please contact Chris O’Connor at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas.
Happy travels through the site.
