This fall, Bainbridge Island will welcome home a larger-than-life historical figure.
The entrance to the Sound to Olympics Trail on BI will be marked with a 14-foot tall welcome pole depicting Chief Sealth’s father and former chief of the Suquamish Tribe, Shweabe, carved by Suquamish artist Randi Purser.
The collaboration is the first of its kind for the BI Parks and Trails Foundation, executive director Mary Meier said. For a region-spanning, connective parks project like the STO Trail, it felt important to remind future users about the special place they are about to enter.
“It just seemed like a logical place to have some placemaking or signage. The whole intention is for people to understand their place on this land,” Meier said. “The beauty and wonder of this beautiful pole will inspire people to learn more about the traditional land and waters here.”
The BIPTF has a fundraising goal of $65,000 to complete the project, supported by a $10,000 grant from the BI Rotary Club and $20,000 from the city of BI.
The welcome pole, Purser’s first solo pole project, will be carved from a single old-growth cedar log. Cedar is the traditional source of wood for poles and canoes for Salish nations, she said. “I’ve worked with old growth and second growth, and old growth is a great material — the grain is predictable and easy.”
Purser discovered a passion for woodcarving in the early aughts. Her family members were woodcarvers, and while she had other artistic pursuits, other community members encouraged her to give it a shot. “I accidentally came into it,” Purser said. Carver “Michael Pavel from Skokomish was raising a pole, and he encouraged me to carve. He sent me home with a piece of wood — which became another piece of wood, and another and another.”
With guidance from other carvers like Ruth Peterson and Duayne Pasco, Purser began to tackle larger projects. “I’ve carved I don’t even know how many poles by now,” she said. “There’s a definite style that makes a piece belong to a certain region.”
Shweabe will not stand alone. Around the same time she was contracted by the foundation, Purser was commissioned by the Seattle Waterfront to carve a pole for an public art project that will span 600 feet (or about one Space Needle-length) of the city’s commercial shoreline. When Purser took a tour of potential sites around BI, an idea struck her: she could carve a pair of welcome poles depicting both Chief Seattle’s parents, Shweabe and Sholeetsa, a member of the Duwamish, that could stand in their respective ancestral lands. “They’re both in my studio now, next to each other,” Purser said.
