My mom accuses me of romanticizing the first few years of my life.

“I don’t know why you think you lived in some hippie fairytale… those were really hard times” she’d say

The truth is, I don’t remember much about that part of my childhood and yet, it’s a much talked about and probably the most pivotal time of our past.

In theory, it’s an idealistic story – a young large family move into the wild, determined to live off the land.

The art installation on Georgia Street reminds me of the old house from my childhood.

Our house, a similar shack, was wide and painted a cheery yellow on stilts.

It looked forlorn and out of place in the middle of the tall lush greenery.

My father built it with his ‘bare hands’ and we would live in it for years.

The art installation on Georgia Street by the Shangri-la Hotel is by artist Ken Lum.

It’s a scale model of three squatters’ shacks that used to be in the Maplewood Mudflats in North Vancouver.

Lum recreates the cabins of renowned writer Malcolm Lowry, artist Tom Burrows and Greenpeace leader Dr. Paul Spong.
Propped up on stilts over the surface of the Offsite reflecting pool, the huts strike a sharp contrast with the surrounding downtown architecture. ( Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite)

I went with my mom to see the shacks; she admits it reminds her of our little house, it’s much like it.

She stares at it wistfully for a long time, as if it’s the actual house.

“It looks so beautiful here among these tall buildings, cars, and the shiny pool…

If you took one and placed in a forest in the middle of nowhere, it wouldn’t look so beautiful” She says.