The third Mann Art Gallery Intergenerational Métis Mentorship Project took a different form at a new location on Saturday.
The Horse Labyrinth Outdoor Art Installation Project placed a labyrinth outside the Prince Albert Tourism Centre in a collaboration between artist Leah Dorion, Elder Curtis Breaton and mentees emerging Métis cultural educator and artist Ashley Smith and Dorion’s son, Louis Lafferty.
This interactive artwork is inspired by Métis Horse Culture in the region and the pattern for this labyrinth is featured in Dorion’s Mother Earth Colouring Book.
“I really wanted to take creatures that were key to the native culture through our history,” Dorion said. “The horse has been a key Métis figure, like (with) the Red River carts and just the hunting Buffalo on horseback, so I wanted to make a beautiful labyrinth path for the community. (It’s) very interactive and this labyrinth has a real shepherd’s hook design in it to go to centre.”
Dorian said the circle also integrated Willow trees and rocks along with bison figurines from the 2021 installation of cardboard bison painted in English and Michif depicting traditional Métis values and images.
The project is a page from her colouring book come to life.
“We’re using some natural materials rocks, Willow and stakes and of course tying it up with fabric and figurines, so it’s really a nice use of different material,” Dorion explained.
“Someone could take my colouring page and literally walk with the colouring book open and follow the path, and they’re literally living the colouring book experience.”
Dorion said it was amazing to see something from her imagination come to life. She said Breaton, Smith and Lafferty were an amazing team.
Having her son work on the project was also special.
“He’s been working with Willow since childhood, and labyrinths as well, and he just has such an eye for this,” Dorion said. “This is why I wanted to keep growing this skill set in him. As he grows older, he’ll one day take over and he could do this.
“He’s a young Métis man, he’s got the vision and he’s got the carpentry type skills because he’s the one who, literally put the stakes in, does the fine staking, and he does all of the heavy lifting.”
The labyrinth was constructed by staking out the path and then attaching the willow branches to the stakes. The rocks were incorporated once the stakes were in place to make the trail more visible.
The orange was used to recognize Truth and Reconciliation, and the bison were all painted during the 2021 project outside the EA Rawlinson Centre.
“We wanted to tie up with orange fabric to represent Every Child Matters and reconciliation, which concludes at the end of September,” she said. “We really want to go heavy on the orange and because it came out of a kid’s colouring book.”
The plan is to have the labyrinth available for viewing up until the first snowfall. Dorion wants to see it be up as long as possible but they have to have the stakes out before the ground freezes.
The project has been in the works for a while and Dorion was pleased to see it finally coming together.
“It just took this long and with Labour Day what a great way to end summer with this project as the finale,” she sai
The labyrinth is located at the Prince Albert Tourism Centre. Dorian said they placed it there to help promote the city and reconciliation.
“I’m just a big believer in education,” she said. “The Mann Art Gallery has the most beautiful education vision, and they’re all about education. They support this reconciliation 100 per cent. Their board must be credited with being a leader in reconciliation through art.”
This is Smith’s third time as a mentee and Dorion is amazed by her progress.
“She gets the vision. She’s got the skill set. She’s going to do this when I’m too old. She and Louis can co-collaborate and do beautiful work with our community. They will have complete competent skills, and I’ll jusbrt sit on the lawn chair as the old elder in the future and just give them a little bit of guidance.”
Smith said the project taught her to go with her gut instinct and to do what the willow tells you when bending it into place.
“The materials and the supplies that we use to create the art installation are all of the beautiful things that exist on Mother Earth, and I think that with each item that we use, we can look at the teachings of each item that was used and even look back and reflect on our previous installations to celebrate Métis culture and identity,” Smith said.
Smith’s daughter Ava Smith was also helping make for a fifth generation on the project.
“It’s really beautiful, and when you look at it the community is involved—there are people placing rocks—it’s just wonderful,” Dorion said.
Smith, a teacher at Ecole Arthur Pechery School, said she has grown as an artist over the three years she has been a mentee.
“I would say art is really about tapping into creativity and going with it, whatever comes to your mind as a vision,” Smith said.
“I think as an educator being on these projects the last three years … has allowed me as a teacher in the classroom to utilize things from Mother Earth to do different types of art, even within the classroom,” Smith added.
Dorion said she was pleased with the team’s intergenerational nature, with four generations represented through Beaton, Dorion, Smith and Lafferty.
“We have the whole spectrum, like four decades represented,” Dorion said.
She added that having the community volunteers come and assist was also a great part of the project. While construction was happening, the group heard honks from cars passing.
This is the third and most visible version of the Intergenerational Mentorship Project.
“I think this is the most visible ever, the most visible and the biggest interactive walk on any of them,” Dorion said.
The project is sponsored by SaskCulture and Mann Art Gallery, along with the City of Prince Albert.
“I am just so grateful for all the funding agencies. SaskCulture funded it with their initiative and again the Mann Art Gallery and the city need to be credited for this beautiful, beautiful (project). Our art is so childlike and it is not perfect and it’s not meant to be. It’s beautiful and real,” Dorion said.
