Logan Wilson is
the Guest Services
Manager at the
Kwa'lilas Hotel in
Port Hardy, B.C.
(Kwa'lilas Hotel)
Caroline Phelps is
the Guest Experience
& Cultural Liaison
Lead Skwachàys Lodge
Hotel and Gallery
in Vancouver, B.C.
She is also the
program coordinator
for the enterprise's
Artists in Residence
Program. (Skwachàys
Lodge Hotel and
Gallery)
admire original paintings, jewelry, pottery and
wood carvings from local artists, as well as benefit
from a wealth of staff knowledge.
"We can show you how to tell the diff erence
between West Coast or Coast Salish artwork, or
Ojibwe or Cree artwork," says Phelps. "If you're
looking at this painting here, we can explain who
this person is."
Part hotel, part social enterprise, Skwachàys
gives travellers the opportunity to transform their
understanding of Indigenous cultures while off ering
residency and subsidized housing for early-to-
senior career Indigenous artists through its Artists
in Residence program.
Over 100 artists from across Canada have come
into the program. Kwakwaka'wakw and Tlingit artist
Corrine Hunt is one of them. She co-created the
medals for the Vancouver Olympic Games in
2010 and designed the snowboarding jackets
worn by Team Canada in 2018.
Eric Schweig, an Indigenous actor whose
cinema repertoire includes The Last of
the Mohicans and The Grizzlies, is also an
alumnus of the program.
An artist herself, Phelps, who is also the
Artists in Residence program coordinator,
has always been passionate about bringing
Indigenous knowledge forward. Skwachàys,
she says, is the kind of place that gives that
passion a stage.
"I always feel so privileged, coming into such
a beautiful workspace with all these diff erent
artworks and carvings […] and rooms all
designed by Indigenous artists."
In the Forest
Spirits Deluxe
King Room,
artist Jerry
Whitehead's
painting of
powwow dancers
represents a
family standing
together side-
by-side,
like trees
in a forest.
(Skwachàys
Lodge Hotel and
Gallery)
SkwachÀys
Lodge
Hotel
and
Gallery
22 | staymagazine.ca | January February 2022
