mikikwan

mikikwan is a concrete reproduction of a 9,000-year-old buffalo bone hide scraper from the archives of the Royal Alberta Museum. 

The artist chose the bone as his source material because of the many meanings, ideas, histories, narratives, languages and cultures embedded within it. The finished sculpture will memorialize the work of Indigenous women and the relation of that labour to the land. The sculpture also pays respect to the importance of the buffalo itself to the people living in this place, the communal aspect of its use, and its destruction with the arrival of Europeans on the Plains.

Click here for Duane Linklater’s online gallery documenting the artistic concept, fabrication, and original artifact behind mikikwan.