Na’Tsa’maht – the unity wall at Ogden Point
Watercolour and crayon
©2013 Charlene Brown
An 800-meter granite and concrete breakwater was completed
at Ogden Point on the south shore of the city of Victoria
in 1916 in anticipation of a massive increase in trade from vessels using the recently-opened
Panama Canal.
For various reasons, most of the really massive stuff has
always sailed right by Victoria
to Seattle or Vancouver, but in the last few years, more and more Alaska-bound cruise
ships have found their way here.
The Ogden Point Enhancement Society, which includes
some excellent aboriginal artists, decided it would be nice to have something besides a 90-year-old
stretch of blackened breakwater surrounding the cruise ship docks… Now the first thing many visitors to Victoria see is this illustrationof the legends and culture of the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations. When completed, the 2000 m2 mural will be among the largest in the
world.
