'namaxala in Conversation With Parliament 504 Piece Puzzle

The perfect family activity for when you are stuck inside over winter, family game night or for rainy days at the cottage.

‘namaxsala is inspired by a story told to the artist, Mary Anne Barkhouse, by her grandfather Fred Cook. In the story, her grandfather helps a wolf cross a treacherous piece of water in a boat, on the West coast of Canada. “My grandfather’s stories always offered an alternative view for considering the world around me,” the artist remembers. “And so, I relate one of them here, to help negotiate cooperation with the ‘other’ and inclusion of the wild.”

The photograph, taken by Michael J. Bainbridge captures Barkhouse’s installation, locked in a perpetual gaze with Parliament.  In the image, we also see the flags on Parliament Hill at half mast in recognition of the unmarked graves across the country of residential school children that never came home.

This deceptively simple image evokes a shared fate and highlights our need for critical introspection as a country.

‘namaxala is a Kwakwala word meaning ‘to travel in a boat together’. The sculpture of 'namaxsala can be seen and admired in person at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec.

Mary Anne Barkhouse is an Indigenous artist belonging to the ‘Namgis band of the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation of British Columbia. She currently resides in the Haliburton Highlands of Ontario.

Reproduced in vivid wide-gamut colour, and mounted on genuine Eska board.

Made by TheOccurrence in Merrickville, ON