Artist: Tehanenia’kwè:tarons (David R. Maracle)
Year: 2022
Material: Concrete
Location: Albert Street Residence (Endaayaan – Tkanónsote) Courtyard
The fabrication process for the gathering space involved reproducing a Two Row Wampum Belt through 3D scanning and printing for the backs of the benches. The original bench, made of reclaimed building materials from Queen’s, was molded using RTV rubber, and three lightweight concrete casts were produced. The turtle shell was created digitally, molds were taken from this pattern and then cast from lightweight concrete.
The Tékeni Teyohá:te Káhswentha (Two Row Wampum Belt) records the first agreement between the Haudenosaunee and the Dutch, with oral histories dating back to 1613. The belt defines a mutual agreement between the Haudenosaunee and European settlers to live in peace while pursuing parallel, but separate paths of culture, belief, and law. The two dark rows on the belt symbolize a canoe and a ship floating side by side on the river of life. The vessels are bound together by a symbolic three-link chain, these being the light colour rows on the belt, representing Friendship, Good Minds, and Peace.
The Turtle shell installed represents our Mother Earth; that we walk softly on her, on the back of the great turtle during our time here. The benches represent our oldest ancestors, while the Two Row Wampum Treaty belts that wrap around them are representative of the Haudenosaunee way of life, that we respect each other in all of our differences; that we do not impose our laws, cultures, and ways on each other.
The incorporation of an Indigenous gathering space into the newly opened student residence building is one facet of the university’s wide-ranging effort to decolonize and Indigenize campus life.
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