It is a very tactile, organ-like object with faces and creatures in its whorls. In the exhibition it signifies the importance of wood in the survival of humans in the elements and the importance of our relationship with the earth; our roots.

Tooth is a fossilised shark tooth, representing time through the change of organic matter into mineral, into stone. Part of the landscape forever; a body in stone.

It is a reminder that the land ‘settled’ by white Europeans in the 19th century was already occupied by first nation people.

On the signing of Treaty 7 in 1877 (three years after Irishman John Glenn arrived in Calgary), the Tsuut’ina Nation was allocated a reserve adjacent to the Siksika Nation, near what is now Bassano, Alberta. After negotiating with the Federal Government for their own land, the area around Fish Creek (known as Wolf Creek to the Tsuut’ina) was selected by Tsuut’ina scouts. The scouts created a cairn of rocks on a hill overlooking the creek in order to mark the land, and in 1883 when the new reserve was established, Chief Bullhead placed a rock on the cairn and told all of his people to place their own rock. To this day, every Nation member places a rock on the cairn when they come of age. As the Nation grows, so does the cairn.

Iron is a cubic crystal of fool’s gold, or iron pyrites, excavated from marl stone. Irishman John Glenn had originally travelled to Calgary to prospect for gold. He was unsuccessful…