• Materials: Copper and Silver
• Artists: Francis Dick
• Totem Symbols: Salmon
• Styles: Canadian First Nations
• Categories: Pendants

Salmon

The symbol of immortality and wealth, dependability and renewal. The Salmon is the life source, and is always treated with high regard and respect. Many First Nations cultures tell of the Salmon people living in the ocean, who offer their bodies as food to the human world and once their flesh is used they return home to put on new flesh and begin the cycle once again. Their stories teach to honour and respect what is given and to never be too greedy.

Francis Dick

Francis was born into the musqamakw Dzawadaenutw Band (the four tribes of Kingcome Inlet). She is a member of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation. Most of her work contains images of Kawadelekala (the supernatural wolf who became the first ancestor of the Kingcome people), acknowledging her contemporary ties to her cultural past. Francis relies on hereditary knowledge for her strength and inspiration. Francis' work has been exhibited in various art galleries and museums. It has been included in a permanent exhibit in the Museum Fur VolkerKunde in Berlin. Her work was featured in two exhibits at the Ancestral Journey Gallery in Victoria, B.C. Although Francis' primary forms of artistic expression have been through her paintings, prints, and songs, she also designs and carves with gold and silver, and does some work with wood. Expanding into a new-found love for writing and performing, Francis wrote and produced a ceremony performance entitled Wiwoma: Honouring the Spirit of Women, at the Newcombe Theatre in Victoria in June, 1992. Upon request, Wiwoma was performed numerous times after its initial opening.