Salmonberries - Drum Series - FRAMED BLOCK MOUNT

It seemed to me to be like a large tent of a hundred shades of green and every year around my birthday was the time I remember visiting this place the most. The smell was of the earth on a wet morning after rain. I love that aroma to this day. The colors I always looked for were red and yellow.

Through the foliage overhead you could see patches of sky, sometimes blue and often grey. It wasn’t really a tent, it was a large patch of salmonberry bushes. Early in the Spring during the opening of leaves, the new growth of tender shoots is an edible delicacy. I could often be found in a patch of salmonberry bushes breaking off the young shoots and gently peeling the thorny skin to reveal the tender delicacy.

My father's maternal ancestors are from the old Tsimshian village of Kitkatla. From ancient times the moon in June has been called the moon of salmonberries.

The moon of salmonberries performs its magic as Spring gives way to Summer. As the month of June passes by the salmonberries ripen in colors of yellow and red and all the people enjoy natures bounty of fresh berries.