KPU instructor works with Squamish First Nation to craft boxes for 2025 Invictus Games
Terry Williams collaborated with students from a Squamish Nation trades centre to create 50 cedar medal boxes
The Invictus Games medal boxes are made of red cedar wood. (Kwantlen Polytechnic University/Flickr)
A Kwantlen Polytechnic University instructor took part in creating cedar medal boxes for the 2025 Invictus Games, which took place from Feb. 8 to 16 in Vancouver and Whistler.
Carpentry instructor Terry Williams partnered with students from the Squamish Nation Nexw7áỷstwaỷ Training and Trades Centre (TTC) and Coast Salish artist Shain Jackson to craft 50 boxes for the event.
“I am not First Nations, and having them ask me to create something using their artwork was very special,” Williams says.
“It’s not something that happens every day. This is sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity to create something that is going to be seen on the world stage. We did it, and it looks fantastic.”
The original idea was to make the boxes in the shape of a canoe paddle, Williams says, and that together with the students, they developed the design and made a template.
“The people at Invictus Games felt [the box] was too big, they wanted something smaller. So … we came up with an idea for an ovoid shape, which you will see in a lot of Indigenous art,” Williams says.
They later collaborated with Jackson, who owns the Indigenous-run Spirit Works Limited art studio in North Vancouver, to help them come up with designs for the boxes.
“We submitted [Jackson’s design] to the Invictus Games. They loved it. It looked absolutely phenomenal. So we partnered up with Shain, and using his design, our students helped create the boxes.”
The boxes were made of red cedar, which is a sacred wood to First Nations people, Williams says. They depict four pieces of abalone shell, representing the four host First Nations: Lil̓wat7úl (Líl̓wat), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Squamish, and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh).
Working with students was fantastic, Williams says, adding they were enthusiastic and very talented.
“Once they got the gist of how to use the shop equipment, they took right off.”
Billie-Reyez Grace Blaney, one of the TTC students, says it felt amazing to go to the Invictus Games’ opening ceremony and see the boxes.
“I was so proud to say that my class helped make them,” Blaney says, adding the opportunity to work on the project came up during a time when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
Crafting the boxes helped Blaney stay busy, driven, and kept her from focusing on what was going with her health.
“It got me through the hardest part of my life. So to see the [boxes] out there, and knowing what the Invictus Games are about — people who struggled, who’ve been wounded, who’ve been sick through wars — it definitely is good medicine to have these boxes,” Blaney says.
“It carries good things, and I think that whoever does get them, they’re going to be blessed in so many ways.”
For Williams, the most rewarding part of creating the boxes was the process and opportunity to work with the students and Jackson.
“Seeing the students come into the course with almost no background in using woodworking tools and machinery, and at the end, they’re comfortable and able to use them, … I think that was one of the best parts. It was really fun,” Williams says.
