In his bio, artist Peatr Thomas states, "Love conquers all."
The mural he painted alongside mentee/youth artist Kaize Roach-Ashoona for Folk On The Rocks this past weekend shows that spirit of love and unity. It tells a story of connectivity between nations. Strong People, Strong Communities hosted Thomas and Roach-Ashoona for this year's large format painting at the Long Lake site.
“It’s basically night and day, with an eagle on each side. Back home, the eagle represents love — and going across both murals is the Slave River, connecting Great Slave Lake to Lake Athabaska," Thomas explained. "Lake Athabaska touches the territory of my ancestors, and from my understanding, this river was our connecting point between the nations. The eagles, representing love, are our nation's coming together and sharing that love. They are reminders of peace and connection with each other.”
Thomas comes from northern Manitoba — the communities are called Pimicikamak and Miskwaa Ziibi, or Cross Lake, and the Bloodvein First Nation. His father is Cree, or Ininew, and his mother is Ojibway/Anishinaabe.
“I try to understand where I come from, where I am, and where I see myself going. Not just myself, but for anybody interested," said Thomas. "I’m trying to find connections in having all three being seen as one. There is a lot of disconnect with what we used to be, what we used to have, what we are today, and, I think, what we will be cannot even be imagined, right? We don’t know. I like to imagine certain things but, with this mural here, I look at rivers as a means of connecting.
“In a lot of Indigenous art you’ll see what they call spirit lines. I asked so many artists and read interviews about where they got them from, and they say they got influenced by so-and-so or such-and-such but I would look at petroglyphs [carvings in rock] down on the Bloodvein River and around Cross Lake, basically anywhere in what they call Treaty Five Territory there are a lot of petroglyphs that are very similar. I grew up seeing these, and I just noticed one day, basically, something that resembled a spirit line — resembling a man connecting with, I guess it was, the sun. So, that was a pretty obvious thing where it would have come from.
"When artists started using that, I don’t think they really thought about why they chose the squiggly line — the way that people would have connected before modern times would have been through rivers, through waterways. So, if we were trying to visualize a connection it would have been by showing waterways.
“So, with this mural here, I took that quite literally with showing the Slave River, connecting Great Slave Lake to Lake Athabaska, and recognizing that that was a main waterway for connecting and trading from my ancestors to the people in Chief Drygeese Territory, Dene people around here. That way we’re all still connected, and all still sharing — sharing what we can with each other.”
“This mural is basically two eagles coming together, and eagles, where I come from, they represent love. One is night and one is day, I guess, they kind of resemble the length of time we would travel — the entire day, through this river. And in the centre of it is a star, which is actually a symbol from a petroglyph that’s been a lot of interest of mine. We don’t know what it means but I have my own thoughts and feelings about it. In this case it’s representing the North Star, but it does come from a petroglyph that usually stands by itself, away from other symbols, and shows up repeatedly. Maybe it’s somebody's signature,” Thomas laughs. “Maybe it’s my signature from 5,000 years ago.”
Strong People, Strong Communities bring artists together with youth to promote arts in the North. This year, Thomas worked with Roach-Ashoona to complete this work of graffiti art.
“It’s always good working with young people," Thomas said. "It doesn’t seem to matter their personality, or where they come from, who they are, who they don’t think they are — they are always open, always receiving, always fast learners. And when it comes to painting, maybe it’s spray painting specifically, they seem to all pick it up really quick, and connect with it. I don’t know why it’s like that — it’s gotta have something to do with it psychologically, when it comes to pressing a button and spraying on a wall, that just draws people. I don’t know if it’s just the stigmatism, you know, it’s spray painting, graffiti — there is just something about it.
“Working with Kaize was great, because we connected not only just with the passion for painting, but we have a lot of the same taste in music, so our discussions kind of wander off in all these other directions. But even with past mentees when we don’t have anything in common, we still find that connection through what we’re doing in the moment. But it’s been just that extra special because of those common interests. And he’s been picking it up really great. I haven’t felt the need to have to check in on what he’s doing, or what not. He picked it up and he’s pretty independent with, which is great.”
