By Jon Anderson
Suquamish News Staff Writer
Three hand-built and hand-painted Suquamish race canoes now hang high above the passenger hall of Seattle’s newly renovated Colman Dock ferry terminal, greeting travelers with imagery that honors ancestral water travel and the living canoe traditions of the Salish Sea. The installation, titled Traveling on the Water, was created by a team led by Suquamish tribal member and artist Kate kyʔk ̓ ablu ̓ Ahvakana.
Construction of the canoes was completed collaboratively by Suquamish tribal members Tyleander Purser, Ryan Boure, Vincent Chargualaf, as well as tribal artists Toma Villa (Yakama) and Joey Holmes (Grand Ronde). Once built, the final painting, design work, and finishing coats were completed by Ahvakana and Villa.
“These canoes represent how we traveled in the past and how we still travel today,” Ahvakana said, who also serves as the Suquamish Tribe’s Cultural Resources Director. “Canoe culture here in the Salish Sea is still alive and thriving.”
Colman Dock sits within the ancestral territory of Chief Seattle’s people where Suquamish villages and canoe travel routes existed long before the city was established. “It feels great to have Suquamish artistic representation here in our own ancestral homeland in Seattle,” Purser said. “To have our work represented right here means a lot.”
Traditional forms, modern adaptation
Though the painted designs reflect ancient and contemporary Coast Salish styles, the vessels themselves are strip-built canoes — a modern method used when old-growth cedar suitable for dugouts is no longer accessible.
“Strip canoes are our modern solution,” Purser said. “Logs that could become dugouts are harder and harder to come by because of how few remain.” The team built the canoes inside Ahvakana’s family longhouse workshop, where cold temperatures and humidity complicated the fiberglass curing process.
“There were times we had three heaters going just to get the resin to set,” Chargualaf said. “We even built a smaller room inside the longhouse just to hold enough heat.”
Setbacks required persistence. “Some fiberglass went hazy and we had to scrape it off and start again,” Villa said. “It wasn’t easy, but everyone stayed committed.”
Three canoes, three realms
The installation includes two single canoes and one double — modeled after Coast Salish race and war canoes still used throughout the region. Each canoe honors a different sphere of life:
- Water – The first single canoe featuressalmonthat curve along the bottom of the canoe in a subtle shape of an S, for Suquamish.
- Air – The second single canoe features a thunderbird and osprey
- Human – The double canoe depicts two human figures
“These canoes each have their own soul,” Ahvakana said. “They’re girls — they each have their own spirit, personality, and feeling.”
Painting took place both in the longhouse and in Ahvakana and Villa’s own living room, where the vessels temporarily replaced their dining table as the centerpiece of their household. “Our kids will always remember that we ate dinner on a canoe while we finished it,” Villa said, laughing.
Carrying canoe culture forward
The installation not only honors the past — it encourages viewers to understand that canoe culture is ongoing, not symbolic.
Those wishing to see Coast Salish racing canoes in motion can do so in Suquamish.
“If you want to see these types of canoes being raced, come to Chief Seattle Days on the third weekend of August,” Ahvakana said. “You’ll see them on the water — how they move, how they’re paddled, and how much pride there is.”
Art, responsibility, and representation
For the artists, the most meaningful part was contributing work that future generations — including their own children — will see, recognize, and take pride in.
“It’s surreal,” Boure said. “This is my first major project, and to have it installed here feels amazing.” Ahvakana said the project honors both tradition and accountability.
“This is for our people, our community, and our kids,” she said. “It shows that we’re still here, still traveling on the water.”
