Join in a public art walk on Mon., March 20, 2023, with local Indigenous leaders, artists, and other community members, to celebrate the spring equinox and Bimose Agaming (Walking Along the Lake in Anishinaabemowin), the installation of nine Indigenous pieces in Spencer Smith Park.
Electrical boxes in the park were wrapped with Indigenous art for the Bimose Agaming public art exhibit, created in a collaboration between the city and local Indigenous residents and communities. The featured artists are from all over the country, including local artists Marvin Terry from Oakville, Jerri Ellis-MacDonald from Hamilton, and those from further afield, like Candace Lipischak from Otterburne, Manitoba.
The walk will begin at Spencer Smith Park’s gazebo where WhiteEagle Stonefish will lead an opening prayer. The group will walk along the waterfront trail, taking in the nine artworks, the orange crosswalk at Lakeshore Rd. and Nelson Ave., and a ceremonial fire. The crosswalk was painted orange to signify the City of Burlington’s ongoing commitment to Truth and Reconciliation, and in remembrance of the Indigenous children who were forced into the residential school system.
The event continues at Joseph Brant Museum for a smudging ceremony, opening prayer and music with Chief Stacey Laforme, poet, storyteller, author, and elected Chief of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. In 2017, Chief Laforme’s poem “I Love This Land” was read on CBC Radio by playwright and actor R. H. Thomson; Living in the Tall Grass: Poems of Reconciliation is a collection of his works (available here).
Oneida/Mohawk artist David General’s sculpture Conversations and Stories has been installed on the museum’s grounds, and is the final destination of the art walk. General’s work mixes Indigenous and modernist styles, and his graceful and moving pieces are usually sculpted from stone, though he has also worked with bronze. General’s most recent pieces tend to be large-scale commissions; he has been represented by Beckett Fine Art in Hamilton since the mid-1980s and some of his smaller works are available there. He has also served as the elected Chief of the Six Nations of the Grand River.
At Joseph Brant Museum, participants will be able to try traditional Indigenous cuisine and hear a travelling song to close the celebration.
