Grand Forks’ Rotary Club donated $1,000 to sculptor David Seven Deers’ Shining Raven Woman project Friday, Nov. 27.
READ MORE: City council helps with new home for Grand Forks’ Ikasha
Shining Raven Woman, or “Ikasha” in Seven Deers’ native Halkomelem, represents the sculptor’s hopes for reconciliation — not just between settlers and his Sto:lo First Nation, and not just in Grand Forks.
READ MORE: Shining Raven Woman to be housed at Grand Forks’ confluence
“Here in this little town, we have a chance of making a good example for humanity,” he told The Gazette.
President Grant Hill said Rotarians instantly fell in love with the project after Seven Deers presented his idea to house Ikasha where the Granby and Kettle rivers meet.
“It was something that Rotary had to be a part of,” Hill said at Seven Deers’ 9th Street studio. “The reconciliation and the acknowledgement is important for everyone to be a part of,” he explained.
The money, raised by city Rotarians, will go toward the construction of Ikasha’s tradional Coast Salish lodge, an earthen dome built above the rivers’ confluence.
Seven Deers hand carved Ikasha from a three-and-a-half ton slab of Labradorite harvested from the Canadian Shield. The work took him nearly two years, by which the Shinning Raven Woman project had secured endorsements by Grand Forks’ mayor Brian Taylor and Canadian Governor General Julie Payette.
Mayor and council voted to accept donations on behalf of the project Monday, Nov. 9. Interested donors are asked to make contributions at Grand Forks’ city hall, where they will be issued charitable tax receipts.
@ltritsch1
laurie.tritschler@grandforksgazette.caLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
