District of Tofino Welcome Sign
To continue this tour, walk through the Village Green Park and playground to find Weeping Cedar Woman.
Designed and carved by Roy Henry Vickers and Henry Nolla, this welcome sign showcases the natural environment of Tofino using the silhouette of Meares Island as well as Indigenous representations of local wildlife which are considered part of the community. Meares Island, here in Clayoquot Sound, is home to the second largest tract of intact old growth coastal temperate rainforest in the world.
Tofino, traditionally known as Načiks, is the uncoded territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht people and within Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks. Tofino is bordered to the north by the traditional territory of the Ahousaht and Hesquiaht First Nations.
Roy Henry Vickers (1946- ) and Henry Nolla (1930-2004) had a symbiotic relationship as artists and often worked together carving, including on totems. It was Nolla who first invited Vickers to stay the winter in Tofino and their cabins were down the beach from each other on Chesterman Beach. Roy Henry Vickers has said that arriving at that beach that first time was like coming home.
Across the road at Campbell and Second Streets, you can visit Roy Henry Vickers Gallery, whose facade also features some work by Nolla.
Vickers’ homage to his time as Nolla’s neighbour and collaborator is expressed by his print, “Henry’s Corner”, which features Chesterman Beach. That print also hangs in the Lookout Library at the Wickaninnish Inn. The Wick, as it’s known locally, is featured on the MUP Art Walk, and includes Henry Nolla’s Carving Shed, which still stands onsite. Nolla also did much of the carving and adzing for the inn itself.
