Aboriginal content high during Royal visit

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Queen Elizabeth II spent much of the second day of her visit to Saskatchewan meeting Aboriginal people and being exposed to Aboriginal culture.

Her Royal Highness visited the provincial legislature, where she helped to unveil the Saskatchewan centennial mural painted by Metis artist Roger Jerome of La Ronge. Titled 'Northern Tradition and Transition,' the mural shows a First Nations couple canoeing on a river in the forests of northern Saskatchewan as an airplane flies overhead.

"It's sort of an everyday event in the north," Jerome said of the image he portrayed in the mural. "It shows progress and people still doing what they've done traditionally.

"When I look at it, I want to go fishing."

The mural is framed with a floral arch on top. The flowers are prairie lilies, the official flower of Saskatchewan.

"The effect is like looking through a window to witness the scene (in the painting). It's a picture of another culture," Jerome said.

Bob Boyer, Jerome's first cousin, a world-renowned artist and former head of the department of Indian Fine Arts at the First Nations University of Canada, is also honoured in the painting. The last three letters of the airplane's registration are RJM, for Robert James Boyer.

Boyer passed away from a heart attack while attending a powwow in Nebraska on Aug. 31, 2004.

The mural, painted on the lower dome of the Legislative Building's north side, is a companion piece to an earlier mural directly across from Jerome's work. "Before the White Man," shows a group of Aboriginal hunters in southern Saskatchewan. That mural was officially unveiled in 1931.

So, you could call the new work, 'after the white man came,' Jerome said.

Jerome said it was a great honour to have the Queen and Prince Philip take part in the official unveiling.

"I had the opportunity to speak to the Queen as well as His Royal Highness," he added. "It was very overwhelming."

Her Majesty was joined by Culture, Recreation and Youth Minister Joan Beatty for the unveiling. Beatty, the MLA for Cumberland, is the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the legislature and the first Aboriginal woman to become a member of the provincial cabinet.

During her visit, the Queen officially bestowed the legislative committee room with a new name, "Mamawapiwinnayati". Use of the Cree word "mamawapiwin" and the Dene word "nayati" are to symbolize the historic and continuing relationship between the Crown and the First Nations people in Saskatchewan, according to a government press release. Both words translate as "meeting" or "gathering".

The names for the legislative committee room were chosen with the aid of Marg Beament of the Lac La Ronge First Nation, and Arok Wolvengrey, a professor at the First Nations University of Canada. They were among the honoured guests for the official rededication of the room.

The provincial government also announced the creation of a new scholarship for Aboriginal students in honour of the Queen.

The Queen Elizabeth II Centennial Aboriginal Scholarship, worth $20,000 annually, is to be awarded to a First Nations or Metis student graduating from the First Nations University of Canada to pursue post-graduate studies in any field at any Saskatchewan university.