Northeast corner of the Riverfront Peninsula
by nicki sabalu with help from the sun

There might not be anything that a sundial loves more than telling time, but did you know that they also like telling stories? At least, this one does: relaying testimonies that may very well have been passed down from the sun.

This sculpure was a gift from Australia for the World's Fair in 1974. It's one of many monuments commemorating an event that may forever be in the collective memory of our town. If you listen closely, though, you might find something more. Stories of abandoned histories; important things that should be just as much a part of our collective memory, but yet, seem to be missing from books, classrooms, archives, and speeches. Stories about the people from whom the name of this city comes: Spokane, a Salish word commonly translated as "Children of the Sun."

If you stand near the sundial on a windy day, you might feel mist from the Spokane Falls spraying up from just yonder. The banks around the falls have long been significant gathering places for local tribes. Trading and celebrations took place among the roar of the descending river, now muffled by the sounds of an industrial city.

Like the hushed waterfalls, events that unfolded after fur traders established a post at the confluence of the Little and Big Spokane rivers are often muted.

Missionaries and settlers. Small pox. Grave robberies. The Spokane War. The Donation Act. Native people forced to choose between severing ties with their tribe or becoming landless among expanding U.S. settlements.

These stories aren't nearly as handsome as those of friendships built between missionaries and chiefs, or the establishment of the Spokane House, but they're a part of the legacy of Spokane, too.

And the sundial wants you to know this -- not for the purpose of making anyone feel sad or guilty about a past that can't be changed, but in hopes of making our community stronger and increasingly aware of the ways that each of our actions impart the future. The sundial knows that some histories shouldn't be repeated.

But the sundial also realizes that for every struggle, there are possibilities for resilience, and that when we come to know about hardships that others have experienced, there are opportunities for solidarity and understanding. If you allow your heart to listen as shadows gradually shift with passing time, you might find yourself learning the most beautiful things from wisdom shared by the sun.


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