Commemorative Participatory Murals

In depth

The Belonging Action

Vancouver, British Columbia, 2012. Eighty people painted the stories of migration to this land since time immemorial into a single permanent work, 24 by 32 feet, on the east-facing wall of the Harbour Centre parkade at Homer and Cordova.

Commissioned through the Celebrate Vancouver 125 Community Mural Program, recorded in the City of Vancouver’s Public Art Registry, and still on the wall.

Location: 350 W Cordova Street, Vancouver · Dimensions: 24 x 32 ft, acrylics on wood panels · Participants: 80, over five months · Budget: $45,000 · Commissioning body: City of Vancouver, Vancouver 125 Community Mural Grant · Status: permanent

Materials, siting and care

Medium and fabrication: Acrylic on wood panels, fabricated for exterior mounting and installed as a single 24 by 32 foot field.
Site and site-responsiveness: The east-facing elevation of the Harbour Centre parkade at Homer and Cordova, on unceded Coast Salish territory. The subject, migration to this land since time immemorial, was chosen for this site and this city.
Public realm: A pedestrian route at street level in downtown Vancouver, read daily at walking pace rather than visited.
Scale: 24 by 32 feet, sized to hold at the distance the street allows.
Permanence and weathering: Permanent exterior installation, on the wall since 2012 and exposed to the Vancouver climate for fourteen years.
Record: Recorded in the City of Vancouver Public Art Registry, which is the civic record of the work and its siting.

The Belonging Action on the east wall of the Harbour Centre parkade, seen from the street in downtown Vancouver — *The Belonging Action*, Vancouver, 2012. Painted flat on a rooftop over five months, now permanent on the Harbour Centre parkade at Homer and Cordova.

Participants painting The Belonging Action flat on a downtown Vancouver rooftop, the port cranes and the North Shore mountains behind them — *The Belonging Action*, Vancouver, 2012. Painted flat on a rooftop over five months, now permanent on the Harbour Centre parkade at Homer and Cordova.

The people who made The Belonging Action 12 named

From the project’s 2012 final report. Eighty people painted the wall.

Lead artist

Melanie Schambach

Mentors

Nadia Chaney
Sara Kendall

Youth facilitators

Chrystal Sparrow
Elaine Ng
Josh Regnier
Matt Nordli
Rosalind Owusu
Shadae Johnson

Knowledge holders

Cease Wyss, T’Uy’Tanat
Sid Chaw Tan
Wayde Compton

Partners and hosts

Harbour Centre
Polaris Realty
W2 Community Media Arts Vancouver
Rhizome Cafe
Brioche Cafe
One Man Army

Funder

City of Vancouver, Celebrate Vancouver 125 Mural Program

Eighty stories, one wall

Each participant worked their own story of migration to this land, and the finished mural holds all of them.

The medicine wheel, made for The Belonging Action

What the person who made The medicine wheel wrote about it, in their own hand

The Komagata Maru, made for The Belonging Action

What the person who made The Komagata Maru wrote about it, in their own hand

Residential school legacy, Vancouver Eastside, made for The Belonging Action

What the person who made Residential school legacy, Vancouver Eastside wrote about it, in their own hand

Migration, made for The Belonging Action

What the person who made Migration wrote about it, in their own hand

Chinese workers building the railway, made for The Belonging Action

What the person who made Chinese workers building the railway wrote about it, in their own hand

Latin American agricultural workers, made for The Belonging Action

What the person who made Latin American agricultural workers wrote about it, in their own hand

Temporary foreign workers, made for The Belonging Action

What the person who made Temporary foreign workers wrote about it, in their own hand

The MV Sun Sea, made for The Belonging Action

What the person who made The MV Sun Sea wrote about it, in their own hand

Also in this line of work

Our Painted Responsibilities

A travelling participatory mural made from 2014 alongside the Lummi Nation’s House of Tears Carvers, as a totem pole carved by Jewell James travelled from the Salish Sea toward the Alberta tar sands. Hundreds of people painted into it at stops across four northwest states and British Columbia. It hung above the altar at St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle for the journey’s blessing in August 2016, and a collectively painted mural from the journey was among the objects shown in Kwel’ Hoy: We Draw the Line! at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, from October 2017 to March 2018. It is now held by the House of Tears Carvers.

Behind the speakers, above the altar, was the Sacred Obligations mural. This 24’ by 14’ artwork, directed by the participatory muralist Melanie Schambach and created by individuals across the Pacific Northwest and Canada, illuminated the event with its sublime beauty. totempolejourney.com, on the blessing at St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle, 25 August 2016

The exhibit includes the totem pole, a documentation of its journey from Washington State to Pennsylvania, and objects collected on the journey: a jar of water from the Columbia River contaminated with coal; a mural collectively painted by dozens of people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, along the totem pole journey, and a 150-year-old sacred pipe. Martha Baskin, Truthout, 1 November 2017

The work is recorded under two names: Sacred Obligations while it was being made, and Our Painted Responsibilities once finished.

Partner: Lummi Nation House of Tears Carvers · Master Carver: Jewell James, Se Sealth · Dimensions: 24 x 14 ft, acrylic on canvas · Funding: volunteer supported · Held by: House of Tears Carvers

Chief Phil Lane Jr. speaking at a podium in front of the travelling mural, hung as the backdrop at St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle — *Our Painted Responsibilities*, 2014 to 2017. Painted on the ground at stops along the totem pole journey, and hung above the altar at St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle, for the journey’s blessing on 25 August 2016, with Chief Phil Lane Jr. speaking in front of it.

The travelling mural spread flat on the grass at a totem pole journey stop, people kneeling along its edges to paint while others gather behind — *Our Painted Responsibilities*, 2014 to 2017. Painted on the ground at stops along the totem pole journey, and hung above the altar at St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle, for the journey’s blessing on 25 August 2016, with Chief Phil Lane Jr. speaking in front of it.

The people who made Our Painted Responsibilities 130 named

Named by the stop where they painted, from the Salish Sea to Beaver Lake.

Vancouver Beats No Pipeline

Safder
Micheal
Vidalia Garcia
Ryan Cho
Eddie Rothschild
Stephanie Jonsson
Olusha Milley
Cody Lecoy
Geraldine Lahiffe
Christina Coolidge
Tim Bourdreau
Anita Shen
Andrea Milagros
Paola Quiros Cruz
Alejandra Lopez
Eugene Kung

Lummi Nation, Bellingham

Payton Hansen
Earline Hansen
Patricia Allen
Kyla Frajman
Aaron Kinly
Lela Priest
Shasta Cano-Martin
Colby Schnackenberg
Vernell Lane
Candace Solomon
Sharlaine Washington

Spokane

Denise Dyane
John Sirois
Marc Gauthier
Cyathie S
Jace Bylenga
Lucas Bair
Cesia Kearns
Darlene Mc Carry
Hayden Sherman
Jeffery Jordon
Hazel Wallace
Marie Kendon
Deena Wera
River Burdick
Val Waley

Yakama Nation, WA

Glen Yallup
Kyle Shields
Chris Strong
Mel Littlewolf
Winona George
Jode G
Chery Phillips

Seattle, WA

Tiffany McGayer
Mikal Whoberry
Frances
Teri
Kalea
Joy
Laurey Hansen Carl
Liza Michaelson
Erin Rolen
Alex C. Eliott

San Juan Islands--Friday Harbour

Jacob Ausherman
Remus Fleseru
Karrie Sutkus
Carlee Annsage
Mary Wakefield
Sasha Pollack
Kevin Henry
Janet Alderton
Robin Hanley
Norris Carlson
Kim Secuidda
Sharon Abreu
Milee Hurwicz
Lori Twietmeyer
Jill Blakeway

Victoria Island

Judy Gaylord
Kathy Chen
Tanisha Spiller
Terrance Erickson
Marie Brabenec

Nighthawk Event (Vancouver)

Lee Hartline
Shirley Samples
Yin
Fara
Willow
Leia
Bernie
Elisa
Jennifer Okeeffe
Willow Coutts
Ezra Bloom

Tsleil-Waututh Brunch

Deeper Dennis
Rida Wong
Dorothy Christian
Lacy Morin-Desajrlais
Erika Koenig
Boa Fabian
Stan Thomas
Deanna D. George
Allen Linklater
Dave Thomas

Calgary

Summer Stonechild
Rod Scout (Siksika)
Cindy Scout
Lynn Scout
Gelco Buitenhuis

Edmonton

Adrlan LaChance
Clayton Aubichan
Les Cardina
Dr. John O’Connor
Charlene O’Connor
Elijah Birss
Grace Birss
Henry Basil
Victoria Guzman

Beaver Lake

Brenna Cey
Keesha Lameman
Megan Houle
Kristy Whitford (Thunder loud)
Katie Cardinal
Elvera Cardinal
Colby Cardinal

House of Tears Carvers

Jewell James, Se Sealth
Douglas James, Sit ki kadem
Freddie Lane, Sul ka dub

Totem Pole Journey Family

Ramona
Robert Holler

Organizers

Jen Castro
Alejandro Zuluaga
Nati Garcia
Melanie Schambach

Related work

Project	Year	Place	Partner
Ursuline Heritage AliveThe Ursuline Sisters' stories gathered one by one, then translated into images by students, staff and alumni. Each piece was hand painted separately, then composed digitally into four panels spanning the order's founding to its future. Unveiled in June 2023 to around five hundred guests.	2023	Chatham, ON	Ursuline College of Chatham
Brescia Centennial PortraitureA 16 by 24 foot portrait of a women's university's first hundred years, made between 2018 and 2020 with students, faculty, staff, alumni and faith leaders, at four levels of involvement: project members, story writers, painters and viewers.	2019 to 2020	London, ON	Brescia University College
Our Painted ResponsibilitiesA travelling mural carried alongside the Lummi Nation totem pole journeys from the Salish Sea toward the Alberta tar sands. Hundreds of hands.	2014 to 2017	Salish Sea to Alberta	Lummi Nation House of Tears Carvers
Syrian Youth Voices: We Still Have HopeYoung people newly arrived in Canada picturing hope on their own terms, with the Muslim Resource Centre.	2019 to 2020	London, ON	Muslim Resource Centre
Granddaughters MuralsFive panels made with three First Nations elders and their granddaughters, and with five young artists from the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and from Vancouver's immigrant communities, at the request of the Stanley Park Ecology Society. Three of the five are displayed at the Nature House in Stanley Park. The Society's 2025 annual report describes taking “meaningful initial steps toward re-building relationships with the Artists”, and its 2026 report describes that path of reconciliation with the mural artists and with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations as continuing.	2013	Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC	Stanley Park Ecology Society