Our home on NATIVE land

description

I originally created this design to express how I see this country we call 'Canada'. Canada is often referred to as a 'mosaic or tapestry of multiculturalism', and for me as a textile artist I thought it would be fitting to take the idea of a tapestry and the flag of Canada, and apply my own cultural and artistic practices to it.

I transformed the iconic Maple Leaf into a Raven; I chose Raven because he is known in many of our legends as a Transformer, a Messenger and a Trickster. I thought this would be an interesting and intentional use of symbols to challenge our thinking around the body politic and its intentions.

As with button blankets and with the flag of Canada, there are borders...on a button blanket, the borders represent the structure of our 'house' - the walls and the roof of our house. While the red borders on the flag of Canada don't have any defined meaning, I view them in a similar fashion, as markers of structure.

On the borders I have placed triangle shapes that represent both mountains and trees. These are shapes we use on our button blankets, and they are created with a series of buttons carefully aligned.

I included our mountains and trees as a reminder that we have a responsibility to Mother Earth; to protect the sacred places so they can continue to provide for us. Without our pristine mountains and trees we would find ourselves in a barren wasteland, so it is important for us to be mindful and careful as we make use of these natural resources.

And finally, I chose the color green for the backdrop also as a reminder of our environmental responsibility...this land is a beautiful gift from our Creator, and it is our duty to be diligent in protecting this great treasure.