Sweaters unite

It’s amazing how many times perfectly sensible ideas remain nothing more than coffee room conversation due to a variety of factors best summed up as inertia. It’s more remarkable to see one of those ideas take hold, worm its way through the public consciousness and emerge as something different, yet in some ways better and more valuable for the journey. We are talking about the Cowichan sweater.

The idea of tying the Cowichan sweater to the Olympic Games did not emerge from any corporate head office, knitting circle or politician. It came two years ago from conversations in our newsroom about how Cowichan didn’t seem to be climbing aboard the train of Olympic excitement and what could be done to change that.

It was put forward to unite the community, promote Cowichan and the Cowichan people in a way they’ve never been endorsed before, and simply because it fit so well. Before fading away to other stories, the idea generated rabid enthusiasm in some quarters, quiet skepticism in others. And — unbeknownest to us at the time — it earned a quiet call to Cowichan Tribes from the Hudson’s Bay Company. Then the “knock-off” sweaters emerged a few weeks ago, and commentary started appearing across the country on so many different levels. And in that swirl of rhetoric Lydia Hwitsum stepped up and may have delivered.

Olympic athletes will not be Cowichan sweaters this winter. But even so, many positive things happened for Cowichan. On some levels the sweater idea did unite the community and it certainly promoted Cowichan across the country and beyond. But, more importantly, it showed more evidence to the Cowichan people about how they can rise to the occasion.

Cowichan Tribes is emerging as a force to be reckoned with.

— News Leader Pictorial

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