Giving Back to Mother Earth

Giving Back to Mother Earth is part of the City of St. Thomas, Ontario’s railway public art program for roundabouts, here at Kains St. and St. Catharine St.

Dbaajmowin worked with members of SpruceLab in leading the artists, structural engineers, and landscape architects to deliver a dynamic and meaningful metal sculpture based around the cultural themes of connections with Mother Earth, water, and honouring First Peoples and Indigenous Knowledge. The sculpture design is by the renowned Algonquin Artist, Karl Chevrier, Timiskaming First Nation, with incredible pieces across Canada, and his frequent collaborator, Jacques Baril, experienced in large scale metal-work and major public art. The sculpture design is by the renowned Algonquin Artist, Karl Chevrier, Timiskaming First Nation, with. Together they have developed a structural art piece, ‘Giving Back to Mother Earth’, depicting two Indigenous women wearing ribbon dresses, pouring water from a vessel into the earth. Water was fundamental to early railways, used in steam engine trains which would have to stop and replenish their water supplies throughout their journeys.