“Through the sharing of art there is a sharing of culture”

Spirit Gallery is a warm and welcoming art gallery and gift shop featuring First Nations artists and designers. Although the focus is on Northwest Coast Native Art from the coast of British Columbia, we carry work from aboriginal artists across Canada.

Spirit Gallery
Charles Sam
6408 Bay St
Horseshoe Bay, BC  V7L 2H1
Tel: 604.921.8972
Fax: 604.921.8974
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.spirit-gallery.com

With a team of highly trained First Nations guides, artists, cultural workers, drummers and singers, Talaysay Tours can provide you and your group a highly unique, fun, and safe guided tour.  Here on the Sunshine Coast, in the company of Talaysay Tours you will be provided with the rich history, ancient lore, storytelling, drumming and singing  through native cultural interpretation. 
 
We strive to inform, guide and share our history, our way of life and extend our friendship to our fellow community members and to the visitors of the Sunshine Coast.  Our people have resided in this region for milenia.  We know and respect these lands and waters that have sustained our peoples for countless generations and we would like to share this richness with you.   

Today he’s an artist called Klatle-Bhi (pronounced “Cloth Bay”).

In his late 20s, he was called Charles Sam. He was a hard-working contractor with a sun-decking business, living what most would call a good life.

Charles made great money in a stable trade. He partied with friends on the weekends. He was young. Strong. Healthy.

But he had the nagging feeling that there was more to life than the path he was taking. As his grandmother knew he would, he felt the pull to return to the Capilano Reserve, where he was born.

Klatle-Bhi remembers what she told him later: “The salmon always return home.”

Hoping to reconnect with the culture and ancestral traditions of the Squamish Nation, the young Charles began visiting sweat lodges and joining open-water canoe expeditions.

“It’s not called paddling,” Klatle-Bhi explains of the 16-person teams in 45-foot canoes. “It’s called pulling.”

He and his fellow pullers ventured into some big water, once pulling from Vancouver to Bella Bella in a 500-kilometre journey, stopping at First Nations communities along the way to share songs.

Three times he ventured to Victoria in the ocean-going canoes.

In 1994 he was part of a 30-canoe trek to the Commonwealth Games in Victoria. The journey from Vancouver to Campbell River to Victoria took a month.

Sure, they were scared at times, he remembers. They could have been overturned by whales or waves or winds.

“But if I ever was going to die, I was going to do it where I was happy,” he remembers. “We all need to go inside ourselves at some point in our lives and see exactly where we’re at. If you don’t measure yourself, how do you know?”

It was during this time he decided to go by the name Klatle-Bhi, which means “head killer whale in a pod of killer whales.”

A new life, your style. 

Teena Legris is the owner and director of Nima’ma Maternity Inc., Vancouver’s new maternity boutique that will provide urban moms with quality maternity apparel options, organic skincare and cosmetics, jewellery and accessories – all within a relaxed, contemporary environment. Nima’ma which means “my mother” in the Woodland Cree dialect, honours Teena’s native heritage while representing reverence for our origins: our mothers and our earth.

David has been a working artist and jeweller for over 25 years. He works in silver, gold and platinum to ring for an international clientele. He specializes in custom rings.

We at TACC would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holidays, from our families to yours.

Have a Happy New Year! 

“Working in partnership to promote authentic,
Canadian Aboriginal arts, gift items and jewellery.
Environmentally sound. Fair trade. Made by hand.”

We sell hay, feed, new and consignment tack.  We have 3 horses that soon we can give lessons to kids on weekends, and stall one or two horses.  People can come down and bring their dogs and let them run around on our 20 acres.  They love it.  When was the last time you were at a store to pick up rabbit food or wild bird food, or straw for your garden and you got to pet a horse.

Even for us adults, September evokes that old ‘back to school’ feeling.   It’s just that the pink plastic Barbie lunchbox of yesteryear is now   replaced with an adult zeal for self-improvement.

This is the season our weight will get back in control. Our homes will be shinier. Our dinners will be healthier and our kids will be polite and neat. Right? So where do we get started? By tackling the bulging wardrobe of outgrown clothes, the junk around the telephone, the kids’ toys or whipping up a quick meal plan for the week. Pretty soon your eyes glaze over and before you know it you’ve fled the house for a latte.

This month is all about Artists. Help us celebrate the unique and creative talents of all these artists profiled this month. Each bring unique gifts from large scale prints to fine art in limited edition; from masks to totem poles; from jewelry to baby imprints. Each has their own talents and special niche which makes them different.... Visit the sites and see their work first hand. Whether you are an art connoisseur or just think it's beautiful, take a look and see what people are doing.