Indigeneous sculpture featured in New Health Sciences Centre

A nine metre (30 foot), hand-cut metal sculpture by local Indigenous artist Clint George is now installed and proudly on display in Okanagan College’s new Health Sciences Centre in Kelowna.

The sculpture represents the Four Food Chiefs, and depicts the Syilx Okanagan oral history (or captikʷɬ) on how food was given.

James Coble, Director of Student Services and Indigenization Task Force Chair at Okanagan College, said the art piece demonstrates the college’s commitment to creating welcoming spaces for Indigenous students.

“The opportunity to create a large-scale art piece in the main entryway was presented to us at the beginning of the project and it feels incredible to see it is now a reality,” said Coble, adding the intent is to interweave Indigenous design into all new buildings including opportunities for art and cultural installments like the Four Food Chiefs.

George, whose traditional name is Wapupxn, says the art will create opportunities to explore health and wellness from an Indigenous perspective.

“When I had the opportunity to build a sculpture for the College, especially in Kelowna, I chose one of the most important stories we have, which is our Four Food Chiefs,” explained George, who is a member of the Penticton Indian Band (SnPink’tn).

“I think it’s very important when any image of the Four Food Chiefs goes up in the Okanagan or anywhere, that you give it an image that people are going to ask questions about, and in that case, it helps teach people about who we are and where we came from.”

Health Sciences Centre at Okanagan College in Kelowna (Photo credit: GEC Architecture)

The sculpture spans all three stories of the Health Sciences Centre offering unique views on each floor where student study and meeting spaces are located.

“This beautiful sculpture creates a culturally relevant space where we can offer more Indigenous-based programming such as storytelling, workshops and ceremonial activities all with the goal of increasing our education and awareness amongst the OC community,” Anthony Isaac, Okanagan College’s Indigenization Project Manager, remarked.

At the early ideation stage, the project and its focus on the Four Food Chiefs was guided by engagement with Westbank First Nation (WFN) and the WFN Public Arts Committee. From there, the generous support of a group of donors involved in the building helped bring it to fruition.

The sculpture was supported by the building architect GEC Architecture, project manager Faction Projects and the construction team Stuart Olson Construction. The companies saw the art as a way to contribute in a meaningful way to the Health Sciences Centre, in alignment with the College’s efforts to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing and doing into all aspects of the project from design to completion.

“We had meaningful engagement with Westbank First Nation, which helped galvanize our design thinking at the outset,” explained Peter Osborne, a partner with GEC Architecture.

“This engagement led to the notion of weaving, which is reflected in the exterior cladding to the mass timber frame used instead of concrete. The landscape architecture was selected in collaboration with WFN on their traditional uses of medicine. Interior glass panels will also feature Indigenous etching designs.”