Ruby Creek Art Gallery is a primary economic initiative for Sq’ewá:lxw (Skawahlook) First Nation, a small Stó:lō (people of the river) community located near Ruby Creek, about halfway between Hope and Agassiz. In business for two decades, the Gallery represents art from community members, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists. 

We, the Skawahlook First Nation, strive to achieve a healthy, proud and prosperous community for future generations and for ourselves.

Authentic Indigenous recognizes Ruby Creek Art Gallery for its sustained effort to represent and support First Nations and Indigenous art in BC, encouraging continued cultural contributions to their communities and supporting their ability to create without leaving their Traditional Territories, receive fair value for their work, and tell their stories, their way. Ahead of the curve, Ruby Creek Art Gallery opened long before heightened global interest in Indigenous tourism experiences.

With a decades-long commitment to art and artists that benefits First Nations and Indigenous cultures, communities, and economies in BC, Ruby Creek Art Gallery hosts a space for aspiring, emerging, and established First Nations and Indigenous artists to share their work and ensure artists receive a fair benefit for their work. The Gallery amplifies artists’ stories to the public, providing detailed bios by taking the time to understand and represent their unique territories, skills, stories, and community relationships.

With an emphasis on Indigenous art from the Pacific Northwest, the Gallery features an extraordinary collection of Coast Salish work, including limited edition prints, gold and silver carved jewellery, hand-carved boxes, chests, plaques, handcrafted drums, soapstone carvings, and textiles. Ruby Creek hosts arts and crafts demonstrations, with onsite live carving, cedar bark weaving, and opportunities to engage with the artists and learn about First Nations cultures. Past onsite carving projects have included a twenty-foot pole  (2023) and a traditional canoe (2024), with a new project planned for 2025.

Sq’ewá:lxw First Nation brings more culture to the broader community just down the road from Ruby Creek Art Gallery at Syéxw Chó:leqw Adventure Park, with its 4000 m of walking and cycling trails, a bike skills park, viewing platforms, and a gigantic playground.  

Open since 2018, visitors to the Traditional Territory of Sq’ewá:lxw First Nation can enjoy free admission and many art installations throughout the park, including murals, carvings, and sculptures. Sq’ewá:lxw First Nation has also hosted Lighting the Path,  a unique interactive all-ages light experience on an immersive outdoor path honouring residential institution survivors in teachings, stories, and the Halq’eméylem language.  

Ruby Creek and the surrounding area host gathering places on the land for guests, visitors, and Nation members, with banquet and event facilities available for rent–all in support of the Sq’ewá:lxw vision to create an economically self-reliant and stable community for their children and grandchildren.

The Gallery employs local community members, buys locally sourced products, and proudly sells the handwork of members, including drums and cedar woven works. Profits from the Gallery stay in the Sq’ewá:lxw community, providing sustainable support for the Nation’s cultural and language revitalization programming.

Sq’ewá:lxw First Nation honours ancestral ties to the lands in and around the Lexwthíthesam and Lexwskw’owōwelh watersheds. They are committed to environmental sustainability for the land and economic and cultural sustainability by creating at-home opportunities for economic growth and personal development.

 Sq’ewá:lxw means bend in the river, referring to the place where Lexwskw’owōwelh empties into the Stó:lō–the river of rivers or Fraser River. Ruby Creek Art Gallery shares stories about the land and provides information on local plants and wildlife to educate visitors about the importance of conservation. 

As a community economic venture, the Gallery contributes to programming that supports stewardship of plants, animals, water, land, and air in Sq’ewá:lxw Territory.

The Sq’ewá:lxw community maintains their health and happiness in partnership with the fish, as they always have, and are active in the stewardship of habitat and management of harvest.  

By sustaining their business, Ruby Creek Art Gallery supports economic and cultural sustainability through the arts for Sq’ewá:lxw First Nation, and other First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and Indigenous artists and communities in British Columbia.