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Photo courtesy Grant Berg Gallery Facebook page (Photo L-R: Alessio Zilli, Grant Berg)
Arts and Culture

Sculpture honouring missing and forgotten Indigenous children installed in Blossoming Garden of Hope

Oct 3, 2022 | 12:20 PM

On September 30, also National Day of Truth of Reconciliation, local artist Grant Berg’s “Hole in the Sky” was installed in the Blossoming Garden of Hope at Maskwoteh Park.

Berg says the piece represents the Pleiades constellation, widely known as the ‘Little Dipper’.

“To the Indigenous peoples of the prairies, they call it the hole in the sky. So the Indigenous people believed we come from the stars and when we pass we go back to the stars, and that constellation specifically.”

He says the art is to be used as a guiding post to the children that never did get to understand where they come from… “to show them how to get back home.”

Alessio Zilli of AZ Custom Knives collaborated with Berg to make the sculpture out of metal.

Berg says Zilli had put in “well-over” 100 hours into the piece to get it installed on the significant day.

Photo courtesy Grant Berg Gallery Facebook page

Karen Gilkyson with Tiny Hands of Hope says she knows the garden will be visited frequently and all came together through countless hours of collaboration with GP Landscaping and the City of Grande Prairie Parks and Recreation team.

“There’s 24 different species of perennials and shrubs… they’ll have different colours, blooming at different times through the seasons.”

She says she wants people want to be surrounded by nature and feel a sense of peace when visiting the garden.

“Blossoms, what they symbolize is a short, beautiful life… which is a representation of our children that have passed away too soon. It reminds us that life is really beautiful, but it can be tragically short. But the blossoms pull us from out sadness and grief at the same time.”

Gilkyson says the garden is to be a place of hope and healing.