Yvonne Maximchuk - Drawn to Sea: Paintbrush to Chainsaw—Carving Out a Life on BCs Rugged Raincoast

Paintbrush to ChainsawCarving Out a Life on BCs Rugged Raincoast

Yvonne Maximchuk

Caitlin Press

Drawn to Sea

Copyright 2013 Yvonne Maximchuk

First print edition 2013 by Caitlin Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, .

Caitlin Press Inc.

8100 Alderwood Road

Halfmoon Bay, BC V0N 1Y1

www.caitlin-press.com

Edited by Barbara Pulling.

Text and cover design by Vici Johnstone.

Cover artwork by Yvonne Maximchuk.

Epub by Kathleen Fraser.

Caitlin Press Inc. acknowledges financial support from the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and from the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishers Tax Credit.

Library and Archives Cataloguing in Publication

Maximchuk, Yvonne

Drawn to sea : paintbrush to chainsawcarving out a life on BCs

rugged Raincoast / Yvonne Maximchuk.

ISBN 978-1-927575-03-1

1. Maximchuk, Yvonne. 2. Frontier and pioneer lifeBritish

ColumbiaEcho Bay. 3. ArtistsBritish ColumbiaEcho Bay

Biography. 4. Women fishersBritish ColumbiaEcho Bay

Biography. 5. Echo Bay (B.C.)Biography. I. Title.

FC3849.E29Z49 2013 971.11 C2013-900597-8

This book is dedicated to my Hercules, my husband, Albert Munro, who helps to make my dreams come true and keeps me by his side by expediting my independence.

by Bill Proctor

Photo by Debra Putnam.

The beauty of the BC coast is like a magnet that draws you back, time after time. Once anyone with an eye for beauty has taken a trip along the BC coast, they are almost certain to want to return. So it was with Yvonne Maximchuk: once she had made a trip or two up the coast to visit her boyfriend, she was hooked. She wanted to see more, and explore some of the hidden wonders of this beautiful part of the world.

Being an artist makes it all the more interesting for her. Yvonne left the comforts of city life to make her home in the small community of Echo Bay. When one decides to make a home in such an out-of-the-way place, you have to wonder why.

It is a hard life that can sometimes be rather harsh, but when you open your door in the morning and smell the fresh, clean air and see the beauty all around you, you tend to forget the hardships. One morning you will see whales or dolphins playing, a raven looking for a handout, and a bald eagle searching for its breakfast. There is always something interesting to see if you are observant and take the time to look. Yvonne is such a personalways observing and eager to learn more about her surroundingsand this shows up in her artwork.

Yvonne married her boyfriend, Albert, and the two carved out a place with a nice big home and garden. From their deck, they can watch the sunrise turn the mountain pink and in the evening, enjoy the glorious sunsets. They can listen to the wolves baying in the moonlight and watch the many seabird species engaging in their courtship antics. And from this magnificent setting, Yvonne creates her beautiful images of the surrounding islands and channels of the area.

This story relating to a cave near my home on Gilford Island, BC, was told to me by Ernie Scow Senior. It belongs to Ernies people and is offered here with his kind permission. I met Ernie Senior through my friends Margaret Wilson and Ernie Scow Junior. Ernie Jr. brought Ernie Sr. by to visit while they were on a clam-digging trip in the Gilford Island area. The cave can be accessed by a short, steep climb from a rowboat tied to the shoreline rocks. Ive always been interested in hearing the stories about this cave and asked Ernie Sr. what he might tell me. His story of the Animal Kingdom is centred on this cave.

When the People used caves, they lived at Kumlah Island in Thompson Sound. One time a young man got ulcers all over his body. The People gave up trying to heal him and decided to leave him to die. They left him a canoe and went away. One day the young man saw a whale coming. The whale blow, what comes out of the back of the whales head, was the colour of the rainbow, and some of it landed on the beach. The young man picked up some of that stuff and rubbed it all over his body. Within a few days the ulcers disappeared, so he took off in the canoe to find his people. He found them in Shoal Harbour.

While the People were living here, another young man took off and went hunting in the woods and never returned. They got together all the people that were able to go look for the young man. After many days searching, they decided they needed help. They asked all the people around to help search, but they could not find the young man. When they finally gave up the search, the sister of the young man decided she was going to look for her brother. She was drawn to a certain place when she heard the singing. She tried to see the ceremony. She tried again and again. She tried four timeseverything was done four times, it was the customto see the ceremony. A Mouse came to her. The Mouse befriended the woman. He told her that the Master of the Ceremony, the Wolf, gave permission for the woman to watch the ceremony.

Later on the young man was seen in different places. He was hairy. He may have been looking for something to eat. He became Bukwus, the Wild Man of the Woods.

So now, the name of this that came from the cave, the tribal legend, was the Animal Kingdom. This name belongs to the Kwakwakawakw tribe, not one person. A similar story, The People of the Woods story, came from Rivers Inlet.

This is my home now, the place marked Receptacle of Supernatural Power on old maps that include traditional First Nations place names. I feel this power in every breath I take and every drop of rain that cools my skin, in the cedar trees that sway in the sighing breeze and in the croaking talk of the ravens as they search for food. I draw on the power to guide me in my journey, to keep me heartfelt in my art, honest and kind in my dealings with others, to give me courage to stand up for those weaker than I am and to be true to my own being. I trust the power to provide the clean water that runs down the hill, the sun that warms the soil and coaxes out the blooms of flowers, the sea that births the fish whose flesh I honour and consume.