The West Coast Multiplex Society has unveiled a new logo to illustrate the region moving forward together towards a common goal of wellness and gathering.
Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation artist and carver Hjalmer Wenstob’s design was selected as the image to represent the society and its efforts and the new logo was unveiled at a road hockey game in Ty-Histanis on Aug. 17 featuring eight current and retired NHL players, including Tyson Barrie, Tyler Ennis and Mike Smith.
The society’s chair Samantha Hackett told the Westerly News that the former logo was created by a non-Indigenous person with a graphic designer background, so a contest was held to replace it with a more locally inspired image from a local artist.
“All submitted designs were connected to our community and we were pleased with a few different submissions with beautiful stories, connections and art to choose from,” Hackett said. “Hjalmer’s submission connected with us the most both visually and representing the project so well.”
She added that the proposed multiplex facility, which is expected to feature an ice rink, swimming pool and gathering space, will be located on Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation territory and the society was thrilled to highlight a Tla-o-qui-aht artist in the logo.
“The logo embodies social change and hope, the bonding of multiple communities for life-changing experiences and opportunities. It represents an inclusive community facility providing an essential path to wellness through a variety of recreation, education, and health improvement options,” she said.
“The decision to go with Hjalmer’s design and work with him on the logo was about the importance of working with our local First Nations communities and specifically the tie in of the Tla-o-quiaht where the location of the land is and also really speaking to our West Coast area and having five First Nations communities as partners. That piece was really important us and we just saw huge value in working with Hjalmer specifically…Partnering with Hjalmer was amazing and super easy. He was very collaborative and supportive.”
Wenstob explained to the Westerly that the previous logo “had a very Nuu chah nulth Northwest coast style to it, but it was designed by a non-Indigenous artist” and he was happy to see the Society proactively replace it with a more culturally appropriate image.
“It’s nice to see those little steps in the right direction,” he said. “It’s really important. We’ve obviously had conversations around cultural appropriation more and more in the last few years and people are becoming more aware. The Multiplex (Society) working alongside Tla-o-qui-aht noticed that their logo was falling under that realm of cultural appropriation and they wanted to look to correct that now rather than later…They’re making sure that Nuu chah nulth are properly represented in their logo.”
He said he incorporated some of the imagery from the former logo, including the ocean and mountains.
“You see two canoes going in the same direction together and then of course with Nuu chah nulth which translates to all along the mountains and the sea, you see the mountains behind the canoes and the sea in the front,” he said. “We wanted to have not just the Nuu chah nulth communities but also our relatives from the communities around here and of course the non-Indigenous communities as well and so the idea of travelling together not in the same canoe, but in two side by side.”
He added the canoes are travelling together towards a rising sun, depicting a new day ahead.
“We’re always looking for a new day. We’re not going to keep looking back all the time, we want to be looking forward. When we were going back and forth with the design, we wanted to make it something that wasn’t stagnant. We really wanted to represent moving forward so we thought the rising sun was the best way to do that,” he said.
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