The tipi was raised at noon on Friday, August 15, 1997 in the Tipi Village at the Canada Summer Games site, Brandon, Manitoba. A pipe ceremony was conducted by elders Mary and Solomon Hall of Sioux Valley, Manitoba and a feast was provided by the students. At the conclusion of the Summer Games it was set up on the campus of Brandon University to welcome all to a new year.
The painted sun on the eastern door cover symbolically welcomes the sun into and out of the tipi during it's daily journey. The cover is made with the intention to invite not only the sun, but everyone into the tipi. The red hands radiating from the sun are the hands of those who painted this tipi. The painted hand imprint is a most ancient image recorded by humans. It is a clear message of human presence and all that humanity means. These hands are reaching out like the rays of the sun to greet all with warmth in the 'Welcome Lodge'.
Dimensions
158 X 122 cm
Size Overall
same as image
Medium
acrylic
Notes
Designed and painted by the students of the Experiments in Traditional Art Forms class of 1997.
Condition
Canvas is heavily creased from storage. Severe cracks in paint throughout. Water stain in area TM, as well as a brown stain in area RM. There is a 66 cm vertical gash down the center of the image, but has been sewn up.
Mrs. Butuk, resident of Medicine Hat and Eatonia, Saskatchewan, held an exhibition at Brandon College, 1966, mainly of oil paintings of prairie and South Saskatchewan River Valley scenes. (BU Art Catalogue, 1983) Some mountain scenes from study at Banff School.
