Initiation 

2001
Brazillian Soapstone, Antler, Cotton Thread
60.3 x 43.8 x 39.0

Collection of Christian Steckler

This sculpture represants two different forms of initiation-one shamanic and one the result of modern-day cultural changes. The one side represents a female shaman who is also a mother. On the opposite side, her child goes through an initiation to gain shamanic powers. He is deprived of food, warmth, and basic human comforts in order to gain a spirit helper. She holds a drum above her head, and it represents the living heartbeat as well as all cultural links to the past.
On another level, the initiation is of a child who has been sent away to residential school. The child is like an embryo, beginning a new life in a foreign place and withdrawing into himself. He is being initiated into a new culture.