In British Columbia, the lands are unceded and contentious. The history of forced cultural assimilation, genocide, oppression and displacement is all too fresh. The last residential boarding school closed in 1996. We are only one generation removed from the time of its activity, and the wound of that trauma still festers. Here, the extensive indigenous art and motifs that adorn popular locales such as town centers, parks, shops and the Vancouver International Airport mask the ongoing complexity of aboriginal rights, political injustices and the history of aboriginal cultural negligence. The artistic indigenous presence is substantial.