Nuxalk After School Care and Dance Centre

Architect：Mackin Architects Ltd.

Location：Bella Coola, BC, Canada; | ;View Map

Project Year：2023

Category：Community Centres;Primary Schools;Cultural Centres

“In Nuxalk tradition, every building has its own name”, says Nuxalk knowledge keeper Dr. Clyde Tallio. Nuxalk lands are in the remote Greaf Bear rainforest of West Coast Canada. 

The Nuxalk After School building is named ‘Asmayuusta’ which means wisdom of thd ancestors. This includes a learning style that integrates the ‘3L’s’ instead of the ‘3R’s’. ‘Look, Listen and Love’ come to life in ‘Mask, Dance and Song’, the popular school program that was the original impetus for the centre. 

In Nuxalk cosmology, four supernatural carpenters built the nation. Their hands encircle the creator in the centre of the universe (40 fingers make the work go faster). The hands also depict the rays of the sun, an image of the creator. This story is painted by Nuxalk artists on the side of the building, but modified as a sunrise for the children who are in thd sunrise of their lives. Inside the building, four cedar poles from the Great Bear Rainforest represent the four carpenters and the significance of the number four to Nuxalk history. 

These four poles anchor each corner of the main dance space. Here, the children learn to dance traditional dances, moving in the direction of the sun. There is movable seating for the chiefs and elders, and mask storage/change areas so the children can dance the stories and experience the space, naturally lit from above like the ancient longhouses of the Great Bear Rainforest.

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