I'm Vivian Campbell from the Musqueam First Nation. My husband Richard Campbell is an artist, a carver of wood. We have five children together. Christina is the oldest and she's fourteen. Vanessa is twelve, and Rebecca is eleven. Sylvester is just nine, and Richard (Jr.) is eight. Richard also has a son Dean who's twenty now. That's who we are.

I was lucky enough to join the Native Youth Project at the Museum of Anthropology many years ago when I was in high school. That's how I initially started my weaving career with cedar bark and basketry. Many years later, the opportunity arose to join the 1997 weaving school at Musqueam. I thought it would be great. In the beginning, it was difficult to manipulate the wool, but after you get used to it, it comes more naturally. It's almost easy! It was fun to learn how to spin and process the wool. It was also great when we started dyeing and came up with different colours.

In the 1997 weaving school, Debra and Robyn Sparrow were our instructors. I think the weaving school was very important because it gave me an opportunity to learn about Salish weaving. Most of us didn't know much about Salish weaving when we started. I grew up here in Musqueam, but the weaving was something that we were never exposed to.

I really enjoy weaving. It's very relaxing. Recently, I saw some pieces that I had given my mom a few years ago. I was totally blown away by myself thinking, "Wow, I can't believe I did that!"

I gave my mom this weaving for a retirement present [weaving above]. I made sure that all the kids did a little piece of it because it was for their grandma. When you make a weaving, a lot of who you are goes into it, because you're the one making it.

My mom really loves the weavings that I have given her. It's not something that she did herself as a young woman or a child, so it's something that she really appreciates. It's funny because she would always say, "You've got to go back to school. You've got to go and get a good job. I'll baby-sit!" Then I said, "Well, I am going to school, to learn how to weave." She kind of thought, "Oh, wow." Then when I brought her one, she was just totally blown away and she cried. She was so proud, and said, "Oh, that's so beautiful."

We were lucky that Debbie and Robyn were able to get the weaving school together in 1997. I thank them for having the courage to go looking for the funding. They put their minds to it and got ten women together for that year. There was a really good camaraderie. We all got together and had a good time.

Sometimes, we would sit and laugh and joke all morning, or there were times when we'd just sit weaving and say nothing.

It was nice to be able to join the school in 1997, to actually get hands-on experience. I realized just how much time and effort went into producing pieces like the ones that we've seen at the Museum of Anthropology.

It was great to be able to go as a group to the Museum and see something that was so old but preserved so well. The blankets didn't look like they were hundreds of years old! I didn't know the women that made those old pieces, but it was good to have something to fall back on, to be able to go and see the texture of their spinning, of their wool, and the materials they used. I was totally blown away by the goat hair blankets. I think that would be a real challenge to try and manipulate something like goat's wool.

One day, maybe thirty years from now, it would be nice to find something that I've done in the Museum. It would be nice to be able to say, " Look at how well they've looked after them, it's almost as nice as when I did it." The blankets may not be on display forever, but at least they are in the collection where people can appreciate them.

I think it's great the way that the Museum will take pieces like that and look after them. It's great for Musqueam people, and all First Nations people to be able to come back and find a piece that belonged to their people, something that they may not have even known about. Those pieces are still there to tell their story, which is really important. It's a great legacy for my kids, for all kinds of Musqueam people, for all of us. That's what Salish weaving is all about.

It's nice to be able to create the basics like Salish "V"s, twining, and designing, but to also add your own artistic interpretation through use of colour, a different combination of design elements, or something you come up with all on your own. It's great to be able to have that little bit of contemporary flare to it. I really love this coloured one [weaving below right]. It's just beautiful. It took a lot of time and effort to just process the wool itself, but it was a lot of fun dyeing the wool. They're both commercial dyes. The yellow has been dyed on white wool, on white warping. The red was dyed on light gray wool. The light gray is also in that diamond pattern in the centre. I had taken a big long skein of that light gray and dyed it using the red. It came out that burgundy colour. It was a nice contrast, with a bit of yellow to spice and brighten it up red [weaving following page].

When we were dyeing wool, I made this salmon-coloured two-ply weaving. I did brown through this one, and you can see the orange-salmon colour. You can see the warping through the twill, which is kind of neat. I worked diagonally a good portion of the way through it, creating a zig-zag back and forth.

The twill is woven with wool that's two-ply, like warping. That's why you get the extra thickness. With the tabby, you use only one piece of single ply and just go back and forth.

In the school, we learned how to spin wool, beginning with splitting the wool and roving it together. After all that, we'd start to spin using the spinner.

Spinning was fun, but it was also a really big challenge. All of a sudden, your wool can become too thin. If you don't pay attention for just a second, the wheel can start spinning out of control. Then, you've got to stop what you are doing, back it up, reconnect and try again. It was fun learning how to get your speed right. To keep your tension, you need to get your foot going at just the right speed. You can't let your wool become too thin or loose. If it's too loose, then you end up with big chunky lumps in your wool. If your wool is too thin, then it just becomes really tight and stringy. It felt good to finally master spinning. I lucked out with my first piece. My edges were perfectly straight and my tension was really good, but I found some of my wool was uneven. As a weaver you notice these things!

For me, the biggest weaving challenge was learning the Salish "V"s. While I was learning, I'd just stand back and watch. After watching for a long time, I'd finally decide, "Okay, I can do this!" The triangle part in the beginning is made using a tabby stitch. Then you twine with two pieces of wool to create the Salish "V"s. At first I wasn't finishing at the right warp, so my "V"s were going kind of funny. Debbie and Robyn told me to make sure I stopped or turned on the same warp I started on. Then, I found that my Salish "V"s became more even. That really helped.

Another thing I found difficult was learning how to do twill, because you have to make sure the tension is even. With two-ply wool, you wind up weaving with a thicker piece. It seems like you can go quickly because you're just going two over and two under, but you've got to realize that if you're not careful your weaving is going to pull in. I learned to pay more attention to the tension, not to pull so hard, and not to rush to finish.

I think the revival of the weaving is important because it really opens up a whole new door to what our people are all about. It is great that Salish weaving has come back because it is something that enriches our entire community. My children have had a lot of exposure to our culture because their dad is a carver of First Nations art and I weave baskets as well as blankets. It's important for them to feel a connection to their culture and their past. When I came home and started to weave, it sparked a whole new interest for the children. I hope that their interest will continue and that it won't just stop with me.

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