Coast Salish art transforms Providence waiting room

Hospital waiting rooms are filled with nervous tension, somehow heightened with spaces often lit with the dull glare of fluorescent lights.

A collaboration celebrated Thursday between the Tulalip Tribes and Everett’s hospital has transformed a long-established Colby Campus waiting room into a more welcoming place.

The Tulalip Community Room, filled with art donated by the Tulalip Tribes, is thought to be the first of its kind in the state, and perhaps in the Pacific Northwest.

What makes it unusual is providing a designated spot for family and friends of a hospitalized tribal member to gather, show their support, and pray. It also serves as a waiting room for the general community, a place to see tribal art and learn about the Tulalips’ history and culture.

The room’s walls are decorated with 10 pieces of Coast Salish art, almost all of which were created by Tulalip artists James Madison and Joe Gobin.

The works include Madison’s 10-foot-long print of migrating salmon. A life-size woven glass sculpture in purple-and-gold hues, representing a dancing shawl, pays homage not only to the Salish culture but Madison’s collegiate alma mater, the University of Washington.

Gobin’s works include a print with a moon, deer and geese, and three decorative paddles with traditional Salish red-and-black designs.

“I just wanted to make something peaceful, not just for our people, but whoever comes in here,” Gobin said.

A timeline documenting tribal history and photographs is displayed in the room’s entryway.

The room was dedicated Thursday afternoon at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett with a ceremony that included prayers, blessings and a tribal thank you song and drumming by Ray Fryberg.

“Seeing it here really brings a big smile to my face,” said Mel Sheldon, tribal chairman.

“It really makes the tribal community proud. It’s a place of belonging and being a part of Providence and being able to show our culture, who we are in a very serene setting.”

Having such a place on a hospital campus is an unusual blending of Western medical practices and American Indian holistic medicine, said Melissa Johnson, cultural program adviser for the Cross Cultural Center at the University of California Davis.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” she said. “I’m really glad the hospital was open to it.”

Providence first recognized the need to provide a gathering place for tribal members about a decade ago. But then, the hospital was overflowing with patients. Its emergency room was so jammed that patients sometimes waited for treatment lying on gurneys in hallways. There simply wasn’t room.

“What we saw with the Tulalip Tribes, especially with someone very ill and in critical care, they consider themselves all one family,” said Michelle James, the hospital’s acute care nursing director.

“At any given time, you could have 40 to 50 people in a waiting room … and we didn’t have enough space to accommodate them.”

That changed following the opening of the hospital’s new $460 million medical tower in June of last year. A group that included Sheldon and Dave Brooks, the hospital’s chief executive, began planning how to convert the old building’s waiting room into the Tulalip Community Room. The new medical tower has multiple waiting rooms, as well as the emergency room.

“It’s hard when we have our people over there,” said Gobin. “We all gather there to support each other. We need a roof big enough for everybody.”

Gobin said he remembers when his parents, both active in tribal affairs, were hospitalized. Tribal members often gathered in the same waiting room that is now the home of the Tulalip Community Room.

“We had a lot of tribal members there,” he said. “A lot of people wanted to sing songs and it was hard for the hospital to deal with.

“I think it’s big step forward for our people, for all people,” Gobin said of the new community room. “It’s for everybody. Not just Tulalips.”

Gobin’s and James’ works are on display throughout the region. They collaborated on a driftwood log sculpture and other artwork installed this year at Mukilteo’s Waterfront Park. Their larger-than-life sculptures greet visitors to the main gallery of the Tulalips’ Hibulb Cultural Center.

James’ tall, red metal sculpture is installed on Colby Avenue in downtown Everett. Gobin’s bronze sculpture is displayed at Richmond Beach Park in north King County.

Gobin, 57, carved a canoe in the 1980s that is still in use. “I’ve carved my whole life,” he said.

Yet both artists said they were unusually challenged by deciding what pieces they should create for a hospital setting.

Gobin said he wanted to create artwork visitors would find as calming and steadying. “I wanted to make something that represents our people, the Salish style of art,” Gobin said.

The only other hospital in Washington that has a place for tribal members to gather is in Toppenish. In 1995, the community hospital dedicated a bare 500-square-foot building for use by the Yakama Indian Nation.

“They needed a place where they can pray or do their rituals,” said Derrick Yu, the Toppenish hospital’s administrator.

Madison, 38, said he spent about five months considering how to execute just one of his pieces, the woven glass shawl.

“Joe and I have a lot of responsibility to make something for a room that will mean a lot when people are in pain and hurt — the discomfort of not knowing,” he said.

“These opportunities don’t come very often,” Madison said. “Joe and I are very grateful to have the opportunity. Everybody is learning about who the Tulalip people are. It’s our culture we’re putting into this artwork.”

Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Everett mall renderings from Brixton Capital. (Photo provided by the City of Everett)
Topgolf at the Everett Mall? Mayor’s hint still unconfirmed

After Cassie Franklin’s annual address, rumors circled about what “top” entertainment tenant could be landing at Everett Mall.

Everett
Everett man sentenced to 3 years of probation for mutilating animals

In 2022, neighbors reported Blayne Perez, 35, was shooting and torturing wildlife in north Everett.

The Washington State University Snohomish County Extension building at McCollum Park is located in an area Snohomish County is considering for the location of the Farm and Food Center on Thursday, March 28, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Year-round indoor farmers market inches closer to reality near Mill Creek

The Snohomish County Farm and Food Center received $5 million in federal funding. The county hopes to begin building in 2026.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett leaders plan to ask voters for property tax increase

City officials will spend weeks hammering out details of a ballot measure, as Everett faces a $12.6 million deficit.

Starbucks employee Zach Gabelein outside of the Mill Creek location where he works on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Mill Creek, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mill Creek Starbucks votes 21-1 to form union

“We obviously are kind of on the high of that win,” store bargaining delegate Zach Gabelein said.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Police: Teen in stolen car flees cops, causes crash in Lynnwood

The crash blocked traffic for over an hour at 176th Street SW. The boy, 16, was arrested on felony warrants.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.