A new sculpture honouring Indigenous veterans will soon be part of the Grande Prairie Veterans Memorial Garden and Interpretive Centre.
“Invisible”, by Grande Prairie-based Métis artist and city councillor Grant Berg, will be created with glass, something Berg says was a choice for more than one reason.
“As a translucent medium, glass implies a memory from the past or a spirit. These soldiers protected us then, as their sacrifice and spirit do today,” Berg says.
“I used glass also because as soldiers in the wars, Indigenous soldiers were highly valued by other soldiers in their troop. Indigenous soldiers knew the land and with animals around them, they could read the enemy and realized the value of being one with the land and that being invisible was the best asset when in battle,” Berg adds.
Memorial Gardens Collection Manager Renee Charbonneau says getting such a prestigious local artist was the icing on the cake in the two-year effort to get the project over the finish line.
“Landing Grant Berg to be our sculptor was the coup de grâce because he is local, he is Indigenous, it showcases our community and that’s what the gardens are all about,” she says.
“The planning for this has been ongoing for about two years, and finally, there was some opportunity for us to close out some previous grants and be able to take this on,” she adds.
Charbonneau says the project, funded by grant money from Veterans Affairs Canada, is expected to be unveiled later this year.
