Caitlin Aleck

Caitlin Aleck, Te-awk-tenaw, is a səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) artist specializing in Weaving and digital arts.  She is the granddaughter of late Irene Aleck from səlilwətaɬ (Father Chief Dan George, mother Amy George) and Joe Aleck from Xwchíyò:m (Father Freddy Cheer and Mother Ceceila Thomas). Her family connections strongly to Squamish, Musqueam, Stó:lō communities, Ruby Creek area, Merritt and beyond.

Caitlin has been weaving and creating designs since late 2018 and creates for ceremony, teaching, and reconciliation. With cedar weaving and wool weaving lineage passed down through both her maternal and paternal sides, she knows that her strong connection to the artform is powerful. Her work is thoughtful, passionate, finely crafted, heartfully tuned, and always creating with a strong focus around culture, history, and ancestral connection to the land. After weaving for 6 years, she has an understanding that weaving can be translated into design elements & transforming them on a public art scale is a way she can share her ancestral knowledge for generations to come.

Jade George

Jade George is an active in her Tsleil-waututh community, acting in various cultural capacities. She comes from a strong family who are cultural leaders in the Tsleil-waututh community. As a weaver, singer, and language speaker, Jade has many crucial teachings about how to be in community and navigate the traditional laws and practises of her people. She brings this depth of knowledge and support in elevating curatorial and public art practices with community in a culturally sound way. Jade is a founding member of HOST.

Sara Hyland

Sara Hyland is a nation and community member of Tsleil-Waututh Nation. She also has ties to the Cheam and Squamish Nations, as well as Irish and Scottish ancestry. She has explored various artistic outlets including embroidery, cedar and wool weaving, beading, and textiles. Though she does not have much experience as an artist in a public setting, most of her art being for personal pleasure or for family, she finds fulfillment and connection when creating. She draws inspiration from her ancestors, land, water, and her work. For the past several years she has worked for her nation on various climate initiatives, helping to find ways to implement Indigenous knowledge and sustainable practices in western systems to restore the health of her traditional territory.

Salia Joseph

Salia Joseph is Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Snuneymuxw, British and Jewish. She is a graduate of the First Nations and Indigenous studies program at UBC and cares deeply about decolonial and intersectional approaches to learning and caring for one another. Salia is the executive director of The Sníchim Foundation, a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh non-profit focused on language revitalization and immersion-based learning. She is a founding member of HOST.

Aleen Sparrow

Aleen Sparrow is a dedicated Musqueam weaver, artist, and cultural advocate who has been immersed in the world of weaving since birth. Her mother, Debra Sparrow, began weaving in 1986 while pregnant with Aleen, making Salish textiles an integral part of Aleen’s life and identity as a Salish woman. Weaving has shaped who she is today, with its deep cultural roots and significance woven into her very being.

During the day, Aleen works for a mid-sized law firm, but her true passion lies in the art of weaving and continuing her family’s legacy. Together with her mother, she recently opened Salish Blanket Co., a storefront and workspace where they create and share traditional Salish textiles. The shop represents not just a place of business, but a way to raise awareness about the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh (MST) peoples and their artistic history.

Aleen has spent her life surrounded by weaving, watching her mother revive the practice and learning its significance from a young age. As she continues to master her work, weaving has become more than just an art form—it’s a way of connecting with her ancestors and the land. The act of creating textiles grounds her, allowing her to carry on the teachings of those who came before her.

In addition to running Salish Blanket Co., Aleen is committed to learning more about business to further the shop’s reach and create more opportunities for education around Salish textiles. She plans to host workshops, speaking events, and awareness programs at the storefront, providing a space for people to learn about the cultural importance of weaving and the history of her community. For Aleen, textiles are not just her livelihood—they are her life.

Debra Sparrow

Debra Sparrow has been deeply involved with the revival of Musqueam weaving for over 30 years, and has many years of study, trial, and learning directly from the work of her ancestors. Her work has been collected and exhibited nationally and internationally including The University of British Columbia, The Canadian Museum of History (previously Civilization), The Royal BC Museum, The Vancouver International Airport (YVR Collections), the Burke Museum (Seattle), and the Smithsonian. She was the recipient of the BC Creative Achievement Award for First Nations Art in 2008. Most recently, she participated in “The Fabric of Our Land: Salish Weaving” at the Museum of Anthropology both as an exhibitor and as a regular, active weaving demonstrator using a traditional loom from the museum collection.

In addition to her weaving, education has been of equal value to Debra Sparrow. Recognizing weaving has the ability to offer stories of our heritage, it also serves as a traditional form of education to effectively teach us math, science, history, and philosophy. It has been important for Sparrow to pass on the Salish weaving practice and Musqueam history to the future generations, which led to her involvement in the co-creation of the Musqueam Museum School with the University of British Columbia. Among teaching classes, she also shares her knowledge through public speaking, presentations, and publications (including UNESCO, 2001).

Faith Sparrow-Crawford

Faith Sparrow-Crawford is from the Musqueam Indian Band in Vancouver, BC. She was raised in her community by generations of storytellers and artists, surrounded by a rich culture and oral histories that instilled in her a passion for the arts. Faith graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2017 with a major in First Nations and Indigenous Studies, focusing her degree largely on Indigenous new media. After graduation, she worked for her nation helping to further their self-governance and writing their constitution founded on their traditions, protocols, and oral histories. Faith is a founding member of HOST.