The Coast Salish Knitters: A Film Analysis

Written and directed by Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh, The Story of the Coast Salish Knitters tells the story of Aboriginal women, who make Cowichan sweaters from hand rolled wool and who remain generally invisible to the world. Filmed in the southern Vancouver Island, it shows their cultural and their bravery from their past to the present. It demonstrates how those Aboriginal women are resourceful to keep their families alive and to keep their heritage.

This movie shows several families of generation whom made those Cowichan sweaters. With their traditional technique and process, we see how they have achieved to survive and feed their family. It explain the history of those cultural sweater, the process that made it so popular not only between the Aboriginal but with the colonial. We understand that it is also their identity and culture …show more content…
They created their knit patterns only using natural black, brown and white wool from sheep brought by the Europeans. Making the sweaters by hand involves much difficult work before knitting even begins. First, the women wash the wool by hand in boiling water so that it is clean yet retains the natural lanolin, which makes the wool water resistant. Then they clean and tease the wool and card it, combing it in one direction to ready it for the next step spinning into yarn.

Lastly, we understand that it is also their identity and culture that is also include in those sweaters. Each Cowichan sweater is unique, incorporating designs like animals, birds, sea creatures and geometric shapes that have been passed down from mother to daughter. The process made it so popular not only between the Aboriginal but with the colonial. The knitters have struggled with corrupt buyers offering lower prices, with instable supply and demand, and with increasing competition from imitations and the use of new high-tech