In a long trip to or away from home, airports make a difference. Will this airport be hectic, overwhelming and disorganized? Or will you be lucky enough to take off or land in a place that surprises you with its efficiency, atmosphere or art?

YVR has come a long way since its official opening in 1931.

Since the opening of our International Terminal in 1996, the Vancouver Airport has been gathering an incredible collection of First Nations art.

There is something so reassuringly West Coast about coming down those Musquean Welcome Area escalators, listening to the gentle running water and staring at Coast Salish artist Susan Point’s giant red cedar Spindle Whorl. In it, we see the powerful eagle, man and a story of flight.

A spindle whorl, explains Point, is: “a disk which acted as a flywheel on the spinning device used to make wool yarn.”

Our airport is also home to Bill Reid’s famed The Spirit of Haida Gwaii: The Jade Canoe. ‘Here we are at last,’ writes Reid, ‘a long way from Haida Gwaii, not too sure where we are of where we’re going, still squabbling and vying for position in the boat, but somehow managing to appear to be heading in some direction; at least the paddlers are together, and the man in the middle seems to have some vision of what is to come.’

A CBC Tribute to Bill Reid

Written by Elizabeth Newton
www.creatorsvancouver.com