For generations, First Nations people met on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River in what is now Edmonton. Now, a piece of of the very same bank will host stunning pieces of indigenous art in a new park.
Six pieces of the permanent outdoor exhibit were unveiled at Edmonton City Hall on Tuesday.
The art park, located on the south bank of the North Saskatchewan River in Queen Elizabeth Park, is set to open to the public in fall 2018. It will be the city's first-ever Indigenous Art Park.
The site was once homesteaded by early Métis pioneer Joseph MacDonald. A few miles south was a spot Chief Papaschase’s Band formerly settled.
Take a look at the six pieces of art chosen for the project. Article continues below.
Edmonton's Indigenous Art Park
“Public art is very much about place-making,” said Katherine Kerr, Public Art Director for the Edmonton Arts Council, in a news release.
“We want the Indigenous Art Park to not only showcase a diversity of exciting art and serve as a community gathering place, but also to ensure the works within are relevant and meaningful to the landscape and to Edmonton.”
Edmonton is home to the second-largest urban indigenous community in Canada.
Some of the installations will include an amphitheatre — to inspire storytelling and gathering — and a giant reproduction of a buffalo bone.
Artists for the project were selected after consultations with Indigenous Elders, Indigenous knowledge holders, Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, the Métis Nation of Alberta and other Indigenous residents last year.