The Teachings of Mutton
By Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa with Coast Salish contributors
Publisher: Harbour Publishing
Saturday | 6 September 2025 | 1:00pm | FREE
Join author Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa and contributing author Andrea Fritz for an engaging presentation about Mutton, a Coast Salish Woolly Dog whose pelt lay forgotten in a Smithsonian drawer for 150 years until it was uncovered by an amateur archivist. According to Indigenous Oral Histories of the Pacific Northwest, this small dog was bred for thousands of years for its woolly fibres, which were woven into traditional blankets, robes and regalia. The book brings together narratives of science, post-contact history, and the profound effects of colonization, all grounded in Mutton’s journey—a tale of research, reawakening, and resurgence that will interest Pacific Northwest history buffs, textile and fiber enthusiasts, and dog lovers.
Books will be available for signing after the presentation.
Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa holds a Master’s degree in Educational Technology and a Master Spinner Certificate. She is a Research Associate with the Smithsonian and with VIU’s Anthropology Department, researching Coast Salish spinning and collaborating with museums and Indigenous communities, sharing her knowledge through research writing, workshops and lectures. Her research and publications focus on Coast Salish textiles, including articles in academic journals and magazines. She lives on Protection Island.
Andrea Fritz is a Coast Salish artist and author from the Lyackson First Nation of the Hul’qumi’num-speaking peoples on the West Coast of Canada. Trained in West Coast Native art by Victor Newman (Kwagiulth), Andrea creates vibrant works that reflect the deep connections between people, animals, and the land. Working in acrylic, serigraph, vector art, and multimedia, she has exhibited widely and teaches Coast Salish art in schools and communities across British Columbia. She is the author and illustrator of three children’s books.
Presented by the Sooke Region Museum in collaboration with Harbour Publishing
UPCOMING
Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution
By Eric M. Adams and Jordan Stanger-Ross
Publisher: UBC Press
In September 1945, Canadian democracy faced a fundamental question of constitutional law: Could citizens be expelled on the basis of race? Canada proposed exiling Japanese Canadians to Japan, a country devastated by war. Thousands who had already experienced uprooting, internment, and dispossession were now at risk of banishment. Challenging Exile investigates the origins, administration, litigation, and aftermath of this attempt at gross injustice, and shares the stories of resilience of those who faced it.
More details to come…