Yellowknife Cultural Crossroads

There is this amazing painting and set of sculptures that decorate a stone hill along the roadway leading to Old Town and Latham Island in Yellowknife. If you know the 'knife, it's just before Johnson's Building Supplies; if you don't - you can't miss it. It's fabulous.

From a plaque on the site: "This site is a testament to the close collaboration among Metis, Dene, Inuvialuit, English Canadian, French Canadian and Quebec cultures and is dedicated to all peoples of the north. Work on this project began in the summer of 1999, when artists Sonny MacDonald, a Metis from Fort Smith, John Sabourin, a Dene from Fort Simpson, and Eli Nasogaluak, an Inuvialuit from Tuktoyaktuk fashioned this sculpture from a block of marble formed on the shore of Great Slave Lake 2.5 - 4 billion years ago."

"The rock face was carved by Armand Vaillancourt of Montreal, assisted by Chris Ishoj of Mansonville, Quebec, and the symbols were painted by John Sabourin. "

It's a great combination of carving, statues and paintings. And the colours used stand right out against the grey of the rock. In addition to the bison pictured above, I also saw a mouse, turtle, frog, cat, lizard and many other creatures, surrounded by hands, heands and more hands.