By Julie Chadwick and Cara McKenna, Local Journalism Initiative Reporters INDIGINEWS
A showcase by the Snuneymuxw family design house Ay Lelum at New York Fashion Week paid tribute to their relative W. Joel Good ts’usqinuxun after the artist died suddenly.
The show on Sept. 7 opened with an onstage screen that played a video of Good working on a carving with guidance from his father.
“I’m old school,” Good said as he carefully sanded and shaped the wood. “Sometimes I end up designing some of the pieces or sometimes he does a design, and then if he’s already done a design, I’ll just jump in and help where I can.”
As the video faded out, the sound of soft Coast Salish music by his sisters filled the room as models began to walk out, one by one, wearing clothing adorned with Good’s designs.
The showcase by the Good family’s design house Ay Lelum titled Your Spirit was a tribute to “our brother, son, uncle, Joel Good who passed away suddenly on August 28,” an announcer explained. “This is to honour and share his beautiful artwork.”
Good, who had just turned 40, was a central force in continuing the resurgence of traditional Snuneymuxw carving started by his father, hereditary chief, historian, honorary doctorate-holder and master carver William Good ts’usqinuxun. He also inherited a rich artistic tradition from his mother, painter and fashion designer Sandra Moorhouse-Good thul te lada.
The two artistic traditions combined powerfully in the work Joel collaborated on with his sisters Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward Good at their design house Ay Lelum — The Good House of Design, which features artwork from Joel and both their parents.
“He is a huge part of what Sophia and I do. Not only do you walk in and see his art everywhere, or watch a showcase and it’s all of his artwork, but he’s also in the background, in the idea process,” Aunalee said in a 2023 video celebrating Good’s City of Nanaimo Excellence in Culture Award.
In the week before he died, Good sent Aunalee some fresh designs he was working on.
“Before his passing I showed him the .125 showcase .375 designs and he said they were ‘dope,’” Aunalee wrote in a statement.
In a subsequent Instagram post, she acknowledged that it had been “a really tough week” and though it was difficult to go through the process of getting the show out she thanked everyone for their love and support.
The collection features the Good family crest, a Supernatural Eagle created by Joel, and the accompanying music was written by his sisters and produced by Rob the Viking, and includes the sounds of Joel carving. A second song was recorded the day after Joel died with Aunalee, Sophia and his childhood friend Eli Buffalo, who shared the Cree Grandmother song to guide his friend on his journey, according to Ay Lelum.
The showcase happened after a week of grieving and ceremony, with services at Snuneymuxw First Nation on Sept. 4 and 5. Many in the City of Nanaimo and beyond remember Joel’s legacy as an artist who will resonate in the community for generations to come.
Father and son regularly worked on artistic projects together in the family work space along the Nanaimo River. One day, as Nanaimo Art Gallery curator Jesse Birch watched the two carving across from one another, the inspiration for a 2019 show at the NAG titled Across The Table about cross-generational collaborations was formed.
“That exhibit was really about intergenerational sharing and passing the torch to another generation by working together every day. When I think of William’s life work, it is to revive hul’qumi’num art, which is art as language,” said Birch.
“What .125Joel.375 and other young Coast Salish artists are doing is resurging the art. It’s not just reviving it but helping it to thrive — when you think about all the pieces that Joel .125and William.375 have around Nanaimo — 10 years ago there was so little Coast Salish art.”
Some of these pieces include Supernatural Eagle Bringing the Sun Back to the World, a carving that fronts the main entrance to the gallery.
The Supernatural Eagle “is a messenger between heaven and earth,” William told the Salish Sea Sentinel in 2019. “When we pass away, it’s a supernatural eagle that brings us to heaven.”
Under the guidance of William, Joel also carved a pair of house posts made from five-metre-tall yellow cedar posts that now stand in Stiil’nep (Departure Bay), an important village site of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.
The poles are joined by a portal piece in the centre cut from steel and depicting a frog, which was designed to emulate the front of a longhouse.
In an interview with the Salish Sea Sentinel in 2018 shortly after the house posts were revealed, Joel spoke about working on the carvings every day for seven months straight — waking up at 6 a.m. each morning and getting straight to work.
He described having the pieces on display at Stiil’nep as being “like taking back what was ours” and “having that representation that we’ve always been here.”
Lawrence Mitchell (Tsumkwatun) of Snaw-naw-as First Nation, a relative of Joel’s, also noted the artist’s lineage as “the great-great-grandson of Chief Louis Good, the son of the original chief of the seven amalgamated tribes known as Snuneymuxw,” he told a crowd attending the unveiling, “and these house posts are erected in the original village site where they would have lived and ruled.”
These artworks — such as his paintings on the concrete of the Harewood Skate Park — demonstrate just how versatile and fluid an artist Joel was, and how he moved through so many local subcultures, said Birch.
“One thing that made him unique was that he worked in traditional practice but he was really open to working with different media,” said Birch, who added that Joel was also an accomplished painter.
“Like with the spindle whorl he did down by The Vault — it was vandalized and he was like, ‘Okay well let’s make it metal, it doesn’t need to be wood. It just needs to tell the story, in my style.’ And that’s really cool.”
Much of Joel’s artwork took place in collaboration with an artistic family that he described as having a “massive talent pool” in a 2012 interview with the Nanaimo Daily News.
Joel’s mother Sandra Moorhouse-Good, a fashion designer and painter who grew up learning traditional oil painting from her grandfather Herbert Moorhouse, was also a huge influence on his work, said Aunalee.
“Dad’s Coast Salish style and mom’s form. The carving technique from him and the painting technique from her. He was perfect at both their mediums.”
Joel was humble about his talent, and enjoyed going into classrooms to teach about his art, according to his family. They noted that his ability to sketch was evident at an early age, and the designs came through him like a vessel. William said Joel was “born with these gifts” and proclaimed that “we’ve lost our greatest artist.”
Though art was all around Joel growing up, his parents started the Art of Siem gallery and shop on the Harbourfront walkway — he started working as a professional artist sometime in 2007.
“I was working out at a mill in Errington and was making really good money, and one day I just randomly decided, ‘I’m going to be a professional artist,’ and I literally just quit my job,” he told the Daily News. “I was so stubborn. Once I had decided that this was what I was going to do, there was nothing else. It didn’t matter if I ended up on the street.”
Vancouver Island University flew its flags at half mast last week as a tribute to the life and artistic contributions of Joel, who was an alumnus of the school. In 2018, the university commissioned Joel to carve a spindle whorl featuring a seawolf and his artwork is featured on the president’s and chancellor’s ceremonial regalia worn at convocation.
“All of Joel’s designs, including the spindle whorl in the Trades Discovery Centre, were derived from traditional legends and through extensive archival research into the original style,” said a statement from the university. “Joel touched many people in the community. He was a master artist who played a critical, irreplaceable role in the revitalization of traditional Coast Salish art.”
Over the coming weeks and months, Joel’s designs for the City of Nanaimo’s utility covers will be released, and are expected to replace all the current storm, water and utility covers in the city over the next decade as the new designs will be used anytime old covers need replacement.
Joel’s artwork is woven into the fabric of the city. The Snuneymuxw-owned Courtyard Marriott hotel also features his work heavily as he carved a spindle whorl in the lobby and his art is featured around the hotel on every floor. Ay Lelum redesigned the hotel as a family project to honour the history of the site where the hotel sits.
“Anyone’s death is a tragedy, but this one is particularly tragic because he had created so much extraordinary art in his lifetime already and there was much more to come,” said Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog.
“This community has lost one of its most creative talents and a family has lost a beloved son and sibling, and the Snuneymuxw First Nation one of its outstanding lights.”
