From Street Level to Summit

The City of Duncan is home to over 40 totems carved by Indigenous artists from Vancouver Island and across Canada, large colourful murals, and many public art installations by a spectrum of artists that depict the rich history and unique stories of the Cowichan Valley. Queens Garden Apartments is proud to contribute to the cultural beautification of Garden Street with The Light Among Our Peaks. Inspired by the playful movement of light across the local mountains as it transforms the sky and land from sunrise to sunset, this locally created mixed‑medium piece invites viewers to look up and around — to explore and experience our natural surroundings, and to delve more deeply into the layered stories they hold.

THE LIGHT AMONG OUR PEAKS

At dawn, the Cowichan Valley stirs beneath a veil of silver mist. The first light spills over the horizon, brushing the peaks one by one — each mountain receiving its own moment of awakening. 

Mount Tzouhalem is always the first to catch the sun. Its cliffs ignite in amber and rose, the light sliding down its face like liquid fire. The cross at its summit gleams, a quiet beacon above the valley. The light there feels sacred, as if the mountain itself is offering a blessing to the day.  

Across the valley, Mount Prevost stands tall and proud, its twin peaks catching the sun next. The light sharpens its ridges, revealing the scars of time — ancient rock faces carved by wind and rain. When the sun climbs higher, the mountain glows bronze, and the valley below seems to breathe in rhythm with it.  

Maple Mountain, closer to the sea, receives a softer light. The morning sun filters through arbutus branches, dappling the forest floor in gold. The ocean reflects upward, casting a shimmer that dances across the trees. In the evening, when the sun sinks behind the Gulf Islands, Maple Mountain becomes a silhouette of deep violet, its outline fading into the twilight sea. 

Mount Richards holds the light differently. It doesn’t blaze or shimmer — it absorbs. The forest canopy catches the sun in fragments, scattering it across moss and fern. The light here feels secretive, like a whisper between the trees. It’s the kind of light that invites stillness, that makes you pause and listen. 

Mount Sicker, once marked by the industry of men, now glows with quiet resilience. The light finds its way into the old mining cuts, turning rusted stone to copper and shadow to warmth. At sunset, the two summits of Big Sicker and Little Sicker seems to exhale, the last rays of the day lingering on its slopes as if reluctant to leave. 

And Koksilah Ridge, long and winding, gathers the light like a river gathers rain. The sun moves across it slowly, tracing its length from one end to the other. In the late afternoon, the ridge becomes a ribbon of gold, connecting the peaks in a single sweep of brilliance. 

When night falls, the light doesn’t vanish — it transforms. The stars rise above the valley, and the mountains become silhouettes against a sky of infinite depth. The moon drapes them in silver, and the peaks seem to glow from within, as if remembering the sun. 

In the Cowichan Valley, light is never just light. It is memory, spirit, and renewal — woven through the peaks that have watched over Duncan for centuries. Each dawn and dusk is a conversation between earth and sky, a promise that the light will always return. 

— THE LIGHT AMONG OUR PEAKS was created exclusively for Queens Garden Apartments by LRC Mulleda in collaboration with Jot Design

We respectfully acknowledge that we live, work and play on the unceded and traditional territory of the Quw’utsun, Malahat, Ts’uubaa-asatx, Halalt, Penelakut, Stz’uminus, Lyackson, Pauquachin, Ditidaht & Pacheedaht Peoples.