Debra Sparrow

Musqueam River Indigenous Artist

Know Who You Are… Know where you come from

A journey to re-connection of my people ❤️

Debra Sparrow, born and raised on the Musqueam Indian Reserve, is a self-taught artist in Salish design, weaving, and jewellery-making. An acclaimed weaver, she has contributed to the revival of the Musqueam weaving tradition for over 30 years through extensive study, experimentation, and learning from ancestral works (Museum of Anthropology at UBC, 2020) Her work has been exhibited and collected nationally and internationally, including at the Museum of Anthropology (UBC), the University of British Columbia, the Canadian Museum of History, the Royal BC Museum, Vancouver International Airport (YVR Collections), the Burke Museum (Seattle), the Smithsonian, and the Aritzia collaboration “Every Child Matters” Orange T-shirt. She received the BC Creative Achievement Award for First Nations Art in 2008 and designed the Canadian Men’s Hockey Team logo for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games ((Aritzia, 2025; Museum of Anthropology at UBC, 2020)

In 2018, Sparrow contributed to the Blanketing the City mural series (Vancouver Mural Festival), creating three large-scale works featuring Musqueam weaving patterns that acknowledge the visual culture of peoples on whose unceded territories Vancouver stands. She continues to work from Musqueam and is a dedicated educator, teaching Salish weaving to hundreds and sharing knowledge through speaking, presentations, and publications (including UNESCO, 2001). She also co-created the Musqueam Museum School with the University of British Columbia, emphasizing weaving as a way to teach history, math, science, and philosophy (Vancouver Biennale, n.d.) She participated in The Fabric of Our Land: Salish Weaving at MOA as both an exhibitor and active demonstrator, using a traditional loom (MOA collection A8199) made over 100 years ago by W̱SÁNEĆ weaver Mrs. Bartleman. Her finished weaving is now part of MOA’s collection (3356/1). The exhibition also included an early Coast Salish blanket from the National Museum of Finland (VK-1), returning home for the first time in over 200 years and inspiring her work (Museum of Anthropology at UBC, 2020)