In an estuary, where freshwater and saltwater meet, materials accumulate faster than they can be carried away. The Nanaimo River Estuary supports life through biodiversity and nutrient cycles, serving as a resource and sanctuary for its inhabitants. Legacies of industrial and colonial land practices also significantly impact this environment. In this contested site, food, economy, waste, history, and memory settle together like sediment, only to be stirred back into suspension, creating opportunities for new understanding.

The exhibition Estuary takes up the work of its namesake–materials and histories converge on the Gallery’s floors and walls. This repository of sculpture, textile, sound, poetry, and video shares personal stories and communal geographies. Estuary features hand-sewn tapestries rooted in recuperative labour, filmic tracings of Nanaimo’s disappeared Chinatowns, aural explorations of the estuarine environment, and other artworks that see an estuary as a place of flux and process.

Considering the estuary and what generates and regenerates there, Estuary is the second exhibition in a year in which Nanaimo Art Gallery ask the question: what are generations?