Artwork by Jason LaClair
A traditional Lhaq’temish woman raises her hands in thanks and looks out over waters that were once thick with salmon and reef net gear. She blesses the water and wishes protection upon all those who travel past her. Salmon swim at her feet. She is not Salmon Woman, but she does evoke that story and its teachings of respect and gratitude, and how we must take care of the salmon if we want them to return.
This woman stands straight-backed and tall, her long hair hanging loose from under her cedar hat. She is larger than life, timeless, a reminder that her people’s presence here, among the islands of the Salish Sea, reaches both into the deep past and into the future.
The Protector has been a long-held vision; now, it is starting to become a reality. A proposed multi-site art project will see five identical bronze statues placed near ancestral villages throughout the San Juan Islands and Whatcom County coastlines. A plaque at the base of each statue will share information about the Lhaq’temish people and their homelands, their Schelangen (traditional lifeways), their connection to salmon, and the ancestral teachings of how to be in proper, loving, and respectful relationship with Mother Earth. As such, the Protector’s roles will be educational, cultural, and spiritual.
Acclaimed sculptor Haiying Wu has been commissioned to design and cast the five statues. In his imagination, the Protector is “like the Statue of Liberty in New York. I’m trying to portray a spirit.”
Inspired by the Fishermen’s Memorial at Zuanich Park, The Protector was originally intended to be a single statue that would serve as a Lummi fishermen’s memorial at Gooseberry Point. Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinley, a fisher whose late husband was a fisherman and whose two sons are active fishermen, explains, “Gooseberry Point is where we launch and come back. She’ll bless and protect the fishermen as they go out onto the water, and she’ll welcome them when they return.”
The Gooseberry Point Protector will be the site of the annual Blessing of the Lummi Fleet, and the names of fishermen lost at sea will be inscribed on the statue’s base. Since Tah-Mahs first received the vision of the Protector, the idea has grown to encompass additional sites and purposes.
“When we realized that the Protector was reminding us of what home was, we realized we needed more than just one statue. Our village sites are out there in the islands. Our ancestors are there,” Tah-Mahs explains. “There’s nothing like getting ready for the season and hopping on a boat and finally getting out into the islands. There is a sense of peace that comes over you. It fills you back up. That’s our home. So she needs to be out in the islands, too.”
The Protector Project is currently being managed by the Sacred Lands Conservancy, a Lhaq’temish-led 501(c)(3) organization devoted to protecting and revitalizing the life, waters, Treaty rights, and sacred sites of the Salish Sea. It’s estimated that the entire project will cost just under half a million dollars, and will become a wider community project, with a variety of partners, sponsors, grants, and individual donations making it happen.
Haiying Wu is currently working on a four-foot-tall clay model of the Protector. Once the design has been finalized, the model will be scanned, scaled up, and used to create the mold for casting the bronze statues. “When I’m working on this piece, the more time I take to modify the design, the stronger I feel the spirit of this piece, and the closer I get to my intention, my original thought,” Haiying says.
“It’s for all of us,” Tah-Mahs says. “Everybody who calls this place home. When you acknowledge the land that you are on, it can’t be just a spoken acknowledgement. We have to follow through with more. We have to realize it’s all of ours to help protect. We all have a Xa Xalh Xechning—a sacred duty—to protect what’s out there. And we have the teachings to show us the way, teachings we can all follow because they’re teachings about respect, gratitude, and how to take care.”
Jason LaClair adds, “Also what’s cool is that it’s about the power of art. We’ve got this larger than life Lhaq’temsih woman out in the islands. When people see the hands raised up and see, you know, the traditional attire, it will remind people that we’ve always been here. She reminds us of the sacredness of the land and the sea. She’s cast in bronze, metal, these statues are gonna be here for a long, long, long, long time. She will outlast generations. These messages will be carried on.”
For more information and to donate to the Protector Project, please visit gofund.me/226cbdcf. All funds raised here will be earmarked to go directly to design and production costs.
Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinley comes from a family in which every generation since time immemorial has fished the Salish Sea. She is the President of the Sacred Lands Conservancy; a founding board member of SeaFeast and the Working Waterfront Coalition; and has served as an elected Commissioner for Lummi Nation’s Fisheries and Natural Resources Commission.
Sculptor Haiying Wu’s most recent work is the Billy Frank, Jr statue, set to be installed in Washington, DC.
Artist Sienum Jason LaClair has created the image he calls “Woman Strength” for use in sharing the vision for the Protector.
Julie Trimingham is a mother, writer, and non-tribal member of the Sacred Lands Conservancy (SacredSea.org), a Lhaq’temish-led non-profit dedicated to protecting Native sovereignty, treaty rights, sacred sites, and the life and waters of Xw’ullemy (the Salish Sea bioregion). Her heart is filled by the work to protect and promote ancestral place-based knowledge so that we can all learn to live here, with one another, and with Mother Earth, in a good way.
