Coyote's Waterslide

Sinixt artist Emma Noyes painted Coyote's Waterslide as a part of the 2024 Nelson International Mural Festival. The mural is on the side of the outbuilding next to the Gyro Park Pool. This mural features characters from traditional Sinixt stories enjoying "Coyote's Waterslide". The color palette has a dose of 90's nostalgia for "Zebra Gum".

About the artist: Emma Noyes, Sinixt and Colville tribes of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, is an artist and author committed to contributing to a visual and written universe of Plateau indigeneity and Sinixt identity. As an illustrator, her first published comic, “blanket story,” was inspired by the role of blankets in both ancient and contemporary oral histories. Emma has continued the story telling traditions of her family by finding new ways to depict characters of chaptix' stories with an emphasis on Mole Woman. Her interpretation of Mole Woman spans indigenist feminist musings and action and merges with her own experiences and observations as a Sinixt and Colville woman. Her book, Baby Speaks Salish, is an illustrated language manual for adults interested in adding more Colville-Okanagan Salish into their daily interactions with children and includes a graphic novel style story of her family's experience with language loss and language learning. Emma's previous mural through Nelson Mural Fest, titled Extant, can be found on the back of the Capitol Theatre. She lives with her two children and her husband Jake LaMere on the traditional territory of the Spokane Tribe and aspires to be a part of a future migration-return of Sinixt people to their traditional homelands. She envisions a future where the work of Sinixt artists is as abundant, vibrant, and recognizable within Sinixt homelands as it has been in diaspora - if not more so.