Well-known Canadian Artist Jerry Whitehead is creating a large mural to show appreciation to Melfort and everyone who stepped up in the wake of the mass stabbings that occurred at James Smith Cree Nation in 2022.
Whitehead said he wanted to create the mural because Melfort was like a second home.
“I’m from James Smith First Nation. I grew up there when I was a child, and we always came to Melfort back in the day,” Whitehead said.
“It’s like coming home (and) coming back to childhood memories.”
Whitehead wanted to do this project for some time and is glad the support is now in place to make it happen.
The mural is constructed from 15 4’x8’ aluminium sheets and will include images and events that help define Melfort as a friendly and helpful city, including Emergency Vehicles, the Historic Post Office on Main Street and images from the Melfort Fair mixed in with his trademark pow wow images in bold colours.
“My imagery is more about native dancers, pow wow dancers, really colourful, I would kind of say that it’s my own style. I am including them in the mural as the people,” Whitehead explained.
“Melfort is a part of the mural as well. There is a section in the middle of it where I have included the grandstand, (and) the fair. The fair was pretty big when I was a kid and so was the grandstand. I have a lot of good memories from back then and the chuckwagon races,” he added.
“That was a big thing for my home community too, so a lot of the people raced here back then.”
The mural also includes a tribute to emergency responders, something Whitehead said was important.
“They do a lot here and they also helped our community when we had that tragedy,” he said. “They were a big part of that too, so it was good to include them. It is going to be colourful, it is going to be daytime, night time, Northern Lights scenes kind of thing and morning coming up. It’s like a celebration of the whole day.
“People will get it if they see a fire truck in there and then I am going to put a couple of RCMP on horseback and then ambulance somewhere there,” he added.
Whitehead will be working on the mural panels inside the Historic Post Office for the remainder of July and into August.
“I’m just at the beginning stages right now,” he said. “I had to get used to the place.”
“I used to come here as a child to pick up some of that mail here or send it off. Little did I know I was going to be in here. I am in my late 60s and I never thought I would come back. It seems a lot of my projects are like that.” Whitehead said that he hoped that the emergency services like how they are represented.
Whitehead’s Mural will be placed on the south wall of the Firehall in Melfort when it is completed sometime later this summer.
“It’s going to hit as you’re coming from another town from PA way. It is going to be dancers for the beginning and then the Northern Lights going into the night sky there,” he said.
He explained that because of the way he styles the dancers they will have writing on them using a lot of geometric shapes.
He is going include the Cree word for hello and the word welcome in English
“It’s going to be hidden. It’s not like I write it where you can see it,” he explained.
He said that he will also incorporate the word Melfort into the mural as well.
Whitehead was recently one of the artists in the Back Alley Tour. He said he has been in Melfort quite a lot over the past year.
“This mural took quite a while, actually, to get it going,” he said. “It took a few years. We started planning, getting the word out and stuff. A big part of it was funding (and)
getting that together.”
He said he knew which wall he would be using for a long time.
“My initial plan was to paint the whole wall, but after thinking about that for a while, I don’t think so,” Whitehead said.
He explained that painting the wall in the direct sunlight would have been too hot.
Whitehead said that the panels would take time but be an easier concept.
“These panels are a good way to do it’s easier. They can be put together really professionally,” he said.
He hopes to have the project unveiled in August or September.
“Hopefully everything will come together here, I should start going a little faster,” Whitehead said.
He used his time at the Melfort Exhibition to get some ideas as well.
“I was at the fair this past weekend too in Melfort here. So I got some nice images and stuff and to work with them. That and old memories, like the grandstand,” he said. “When I was a kid, I thought that was a giant building, right? But now as I grew up, it kind of tinier compared to other places.”
Whitehead has a Bachelor of Arts in Indian Art from the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax.
“I just like the idea of coming back here, you know, just to contribute to the community (and) kind of a make us more together,” Whitehead said. “When they see native imagery on a wall somewhere, I think it will make a connection with the community, and we will become closer as time goes. They are a big part of our community.”
There will be an official unveiling of the piece along with the opportunity for the title sponsor and local dignitaries to speak about the mural’s significance to the community. The title sponsor of this project is Affinity Credit Union, joined by contributions from Prairie North Co-op, SaskGaming, Sauder Home Hardware, The City of Melfort and Northern Lights Gallery.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
