We recently had a creation put in a major park that depicts aboriginal culture. The creation was long in the planning and aboriginals were in the loop from the beginning.
So the piece is to depict native elders telling stories to other members of the group. So how did they depict people ? With huge boulders. Why boulders? Arrangements of stones have been found a various places on the prairie. For some of these stone arrangements aboriginals still remember the meaning. Other arrangements have been there for so long that nobody knows the meaning. So in this piece the elders are sitting in the center of the circle in a haphazard order. The listeners are sitting around the elders in a circle.
|I hope you can make out the elders in the center.|
|The elders sit in no order|
It's hoped that younger aboriginals will see the creation as part of their culture and feel good about how they were taught. For the rest of us we can appreciate how aboriginal culture, history, behaviors and technology were taught to their people.
It's a strong statement about where we fit in.
|This was hard to photograph as it should be shown from above.|