Four First Nation artists to feature artwork on prominent international bridge
By Colin Graf
WINDSOR— The people in Windsor and neighbouring Detroit, Mich., will soon have something new to look up at on their skylines; six gigantic First Nation artworks. The works have been created by four artists from the Caldwell and Bkejwanong (Walpole Island) First Nations, and artist Roberto Villalobos from Southwest Detroit, and will be attached to the towers of two giant cranes being used to help build the new Gordie Howe International Bridge across the Detroit River.
The panels, depicting images of bears, an eagle, a Hoop Dancer, and the Creation Story of Turtle Island, are the work of established artists Paul White and Teresa Altiman of Bkejwanong along with two younger artists, Daisy White from Bkejwanong and Naomi Peters from Caldwell.
White, the project coordinator for the Canadian side, enlisted the help of Altiman, Peters, and his granddaughter Daisy White last summer and the group developed a strong relationship he says.
“Each artist had a hand in their own work and developed pieces that related to each other. It was a great collaboration,” he is quoted as saying on the bridge website.
The idea for adding artwork to the cranes came from the workers at the site, according to Mark Butler, Communications Director with the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority. The framework for the cranes at construction sites is usually covered with corrugated metal cladding to create shelter for workers climbing the structure to operate the crane or to do other work inside, he says. The cladding often carries advertising, but in this case, he says the workers thought first of adding a maple leaf on the Canadian crane, and the stars and stripes on the American one.
“To their credit, they (the workers) said, ‘Why don’t we put art on it?’” Butler recounts. “We decided to settle on First Nations art to acknowledge the land on which the bridge is being built.”
The tower crane climbing systems on which the murals will be displayed are temporary steel structures used to provide access for workers constructing the two massive bridge towers supporting the bridge. As the tower cranes are extended ultimately to 250 metres, the artworks will also climb, making them visible from land on both sides of the border and from the Detroit River. That height will make the structures taller than 73 stories, the height of Detroit’s tallest building, the iconic Renaissance Centre by the river, and more than double the height of Windsor’s tallest building, Butler says. The murals will remain on the climbing systems for around two years.
The artists came with their own ideas, but one image they were asked to create was that of the bear, “to represent the determination in the bridge project,” says Paul White. They ended up drawing and painting four bears in the sacred colours white, black, red and yellow.
Below the bears are images of arrowheads, which “represent our ancestors who have travelled and walked this land before us,” says Altiman.
“It is very important that the arrowheads are there because we always need to recognize our ancestors.”
Altiman’s individual piece includes the image of an eagle head, because the bridge team wanted an image that “displayed integrity,” states Altiman, also quoted on the bridge website, who also added an Eagle Staff to the painting.
Peters, 24, says she worked on 12 different sketches involving First Nations dancers before deciding on a Hoop Dancer that represents her Pottawatomi and Anishinaabe culture. The image includes four hoops in the sacred colours, as well as the four traditional medicines sage, sweetgrass, cedar, and tobacco.
“I like how the design turned out because it feels alive with the movement of the dancer,” says Peters. “I really hope people will fall in love with the beauty of our dances and our culture.”
Daisy White, 17, based her design on the First Nations Creation Story, including a tree on the shell of a turtle, to represent Turtle Island, as well as muskrats, the “earthdivers” who are the only animals to succeed at diving to the ocean floor to bring up earth for the Creator to make land with.
“The fruit and the flowers on the tree symbolize life and strength,” says White, who also included images of two people dressed in red garments in honour of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Paul White says staff from Bride North America (BNA) used a computer program to resize the artists’ designs to fit the panels, the largest of which measures 15 by 12 metres. The designs were then placed on the floor of the Walpole Island Community Cultural Centre for painting, taking up most of the arena’s width. More than a dozen community volunteers were recruited to help draw and paint the images, White states.
“We had some very young children come and put a little dab of paint on the panels,” says Paul White. “There are a lot of people who will be able to see these images and say they were involved in the painting and take ownership. It’s so much more than what we had originally envisioned. It is really amazing.”
When completed, the panels were trucked to the Canadian side of the bridge site during the fall.
“Showcasing the talent of our community artists has been a great way to demonstrate a partnership in our traditional territory,” says Chief Charles R. Sampson in reference to Bkejwanong and the bridge builders. “Our First Nation has been involved in the bridge project for over 15 years, and we look forward to the education, training, business, and workforce development opportunities this partnership will provide. It is also very important that we look at this as an opportunity to tell our story and to educate the public about the indigenous nature of this land.”
“The importance of Indigenous art cannot be downplayed. It is centred on storytelling, an expression of feelings, and it can be used to communicate knowledge of the land, events, and beliefs,” says Nikki van Oirschot, Caldwell’s Director of Operations. “Caldwell First Nation’s connection to the water is evident in written and oral history; its traditional territory extending along the Detroit River, east to Long Point. Caldwell First Nation Council is proud of the connection the Indigenous art brings to the project and in ensuring that Caldwell is represented as a First Nation group whose ancestors once called this place home.”
Altiman is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto and has received an honourary fellowship from that school. She has created turtle sculptures for a parkette along an urban highway in Windsor as well as at Point Pelee National Park where she has added an 11-foot tall textile piece. She also created seven banners illustrating the Seven Grandfather Teachings for the University of Windsor’s Turtle Island Walk.
Paul White was born in Detroit, Michigan, but has spent most of his life living in Walpole Island. He was contacted to coordinate the artwork for the towers through his construction company. White first developed a passion for art as a high school student, and it is a hobby he continues to enjoy.
Peters, 24, a member of Caldwell First Nation and graduate of Tyndale University in Toronto, mixes traditional First Nations art styles with unique forms that include sacred animals and other representations of First Nations people and culture. Some of her work can be seen at Rondeau Provincial Park. Her work on the Hoop Dancer for the crane towers is her first large-scale project.
The bridge builders have plans for other First Nations artwork at the Canadian entry to the $5.7 billion (CAN) bridge, scheduled to open to traffic by the end of 2024, says Butler. According to Butler, there will be “a stand-alone Indigenous art piece by ‘a critically-acclaimed professional artist’ [that] will express the heritage of the Indigenous peoples of Canada.”
The most Butler can say in respect to what will become of the tower art pieces, acknowledging that two years of wind and weather may leave them the worse for wear, is that they will come back down when the bridge is built and builders are “looking at ways to re-purpose them.”