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| Volume 11, Number 16 | April 16, 2004 |
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Law College adds Aboriginal artwork
In its continuing effort to add Aboriginal artworks to its building, the College of Law held an open house March 17 to display its latest acquisition. College Development Officer Tarissa Carmichael says the event marked the unveiling of a four-feet wide circular hand-sewn and painted mixed-media work by Saskatoon artist Gloria Lee, called Wihtaskitowin, or Celebrating Relationship. Lee, of Cree ancestry from central Saskatchewan, is a U of S graduate with a BA in Native Studies and a Bachelor of Law degree (2003). The College of Law commissioned Lee to create the work in 2000, when she was a student there. Lee is skilled in beadwork, hand sewing, quilting and traditional hide-tanning methods, all skills taught by her elders, that she has used to create an artistic tapestry which includes both traditional and contemporary forms. Carmichael says Lee’s artwork is hung on the third floor of the Law Building. It joins other Aboriginal artworks in the College including a mural in the Lower Moot Court Room by Dean Whitebear and a painting by Marina Crane, donated by Justice Marsha Erb, at the main floor entrance to the Law Library. “It’s an attempt to bring more Aboriginal art into the College, in part to help make our Aboriginal students feel more a part of the College,” Carmichael says. The ‘Celebrating Relationship’ hand-sewn landscape teaches about relationships in many forms. It includes images of a powwow, people and animals and includes references to Aboriginal people’s relationship with the Crown and the treaty relationship. Four hand-painted round medallions are made with acrylic paint on deerskin stretches over red willow hoops, tied with sinew. Horsehair tassels flank each medallion. The outfits of the man and woman are made of velvet cloth with beads, moose-hide moccasins, partridge feather fan and bussel, with white deerskin belt, ribbons and small brass bells. Each colours in the work has spiritual and cultural meaning.
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