In October, on CBC Gem (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s digital video streaming service), I viewed a beautiful documentary directed by and starring filmmaker Mary Galloway, entitled ‘The Cowichan Sweater: Our Knitted Legacy’.
In the 1980’s, I lived for several months on Thetis Island, a small island on the east coast of Vancouver Island. It was there I saw my first Cowichan sweater and bought wool and a pattern to knit a sweater in this yarn and style. Unfortunately, I never finished it and handed off the unfinished garment and yarn to a more experienced and enthusiastic knitter than I was. I wish now that I had kept it and finished it. I believe this vintage sweater I acquired (image below) is a genuine Cowichan sweater, but I am not certain. If it isn’t, it is indeed very similar to one, so I have provided this image as a reference to the type of sweater mentioned in the attached articles.
An interesting find in my research this year has been multiple references to knitted items made by Canadian Indigenous women for the war effort. I first came across an article that referred to ‘Indian Sweaters’, socks and mittens, commissioned for the Canadian Navy. Note that in the primary sources of this period, 1939-1945, Canada’s indigenous populations were referred to as ‘Indians’.
The Cowichan sweater was particularly well suited for the Navy and Minesweepers on the North Sea because of its warmth and its unique ability to repel water. A sweater would take an experienced knitter 3-6 days to complete, depending on size and intricacy of pattern. One article mentions payment of $6 for a finished sweater.
The Canadian encyclopedia describes Cowichan sweaters in this way:
“The Cowichan sweater is a garment created in North America with a distinctly patterned design knitted out of bulky-weighted yarn. It originated during the late 19th century among the Cowichan, a Coast Salish people in British Columbia. Historically also called the Indian sweater or Siwash sweater (a derogatory Chinook word for Indigenous people), the Cowichan people reclaimed the name after the 1950s as a means of emphasizing their claim to the garment. The popularity of the sweater by the mid-1900s thrust Cowichan sweaters into the world of international fashion, where they have been appropriated by non-Indigenous designers. Nevertheless, several knitters from various Coast Salish communities around Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia continue to create and sell authentic sweaters. In 2011, the Canadian government recognized Cowichan knitters and sweaters as nationally and historically significant.”
The linked article further describes the suggested origins of these sweaters, the significance and appropriation of this unique knitting over the last hundred years.
I am in the early stages of this research, and I welcome conversation from others who know more about Cowichan sweaters and the textile contributions of Canadian Indigenous people to the war effort or who can make recommendations on where more information might be available to continue this investigation.
