![]() ![]() “There’s so much interest in wanting to learn more and help out. “Reconciliation begins with starting these conversations and improving education around these subjects,” Jones said, reflecting on her community work on top of this project. While the design took months of meetings to plan out, the actual painting and sealing process was completed between June 1 and June 19 with the help of approximately 200 volunteers. Jones told Hyperallergic that the broader path to reconciliation is “headed in a really good direction” as shown by the turnout of volunteers and the influx of questions from passersby. The painting of the white buffalo at the end of “The Path to Reconciliation” (2023) (photo by Quentin Friesen/Regina Downtown) The path begins in front of late artist Joe Fafard’s buffalo sculpture, “oskana ka-asasteki” (1998), and is marked by a painting of a white buffalo, which signifies the sacred loop of life for several Indigenous cultures. Dunbar and Jones incorporated motifs such as flowers for their ubiquitous representation in every culture bison bones to honor how First Nations peoples use every part of an animal for sustenance and survival and in acknowledgment of their near extinction due to colonial overhunting and the colors of the aurora borealis that represent late ancestors looking down and offering guidance to those still on Earth. ![]() The mural occupies a stretch of a downtown pedestrian-only city block at the F.W. The piece featured over 2,600 painted circular “beads,” also referencing the significance of the circle as a broader Indigenous symbol rooted in healing, community gatherings, and mutual support without hierarchies. Cree-Métis artist Geanna Dunbar and Inuvialuit-Gwich’in artist Brandy Jones designed “The Path to Reconciliation” (2023), a 300-foot-long and eight-foot-wide footpath mural on pavement rendered in the style of traditional First Nations beadwork. Hundreds gathered in downtown Regina, the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, for the unveiling of a new public artwork on National Indigenous Peoples’ Day last Wednesday, June 21.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |