This work’s design is a stylized depiction of a traditional hieroglyph meaning “the people.” After observing Mi’kmaq children writing these kinds of hieroglyphics on birchbark, missionaries used the symbols as a form of translation to teach the children prayers. Many old prayer books with these symbols have been preserved but very few people can accurately translate them.

This work was inspired by the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, with Mi’kmaq Nation representing Indigenous people in eastern Canada.

Public art nearby:

• 149 on the north side of the bridge over the road to the Whistler Slding Centre, 116 metres to the northeast
• 143 at the base of Blackcomb mountain, in the Fairmont Chateau Whistler Resort garden, one kilometre to the northwest