Niimaamaa

Niimaamaa is a word recognized by Cree, Ojibwe, and Metis speakers as “My mother.” Niimaamaa is a stylized sculpture of a pregnant woman that represents motherhood, Mother Earth and new beginnings. 

We are all born into this world, the sculpture is a majestic symbol of motherhood and Mother Nature, honoring people, animals and entities of all walks of life as her children. Her seven cascading strands of hair remind us of the seven sacred teachings: love, respect, courage, humility, honesty, wisdom and truth.

Her pregnant form signals that she is a water carrier and she is positioned to gaze towards the horizon between the water and sky. Within the hair strands, the waterways of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers are traced, and seven-sister constellations marked to honor the sky and water worlds. Embraced in a copper-amour dress, she represents prosperity and strength.

She is Mother Earth; within her 30' form are shapes representing the landscape, water and constellations. Highly polished metal allows the viewer see themselves reflected within the entity as a reminder of their responsibility to protect the earth. 

In a gesture of humility, and reverence, she is kneeling and proudly welcomes the sun from the east, which signals rebirth, as observed by the teachings of the medicine wheel. She is a towering reminder of our responsibilities to the environment, love to all our relations and hope for the future. 

Niimaamaa is part of a series of public artworks, called “Acts of Compassion,” for the Winnipeg Foundation and Forks Corporation.

Throughout Manitoba’s history there have been acts of kindness or exchanges with settlers and Indigenous people. The foundation of Manitoba as a province was built on these exchanges and intermixing that created a new nation of people the Metis. The grounding principals of Manitobans are rooted in kindness, mutual respect, humility and love. Stories such as Indigenous people carrying settlers children across the province to a safer place, teaching traders and new comers how to survive in this harsh climate, marrying into each other families to create new generations of people are all acts of love and respect. The proposal of these public art works will be situated in the inspiration of these kinds of acts to build a strong foundation of Indigenous and settler relations into the future. It will inspire new generations of Manitobans, Indigenous people and new comers with these stories of compassion. Each artist has proposed stories of knowledge, cultural exchange and friendship as way forward to build relationships that will be strong and rooted in respect.histories that these acts represent. The proposal contains three new works by KC Adams, Jaimie Isaac and Val Vlint that will inspire new generations and at the same time create connections for past Manitobans. Each of these projects are examples of public art concepts which would be further explored if the proposal successful. Each work would have a storyboard or plague with the story of each of the work to have this knowledge shared with the public. This project could be timed perfectly with the Manitoba 150 year anniversary to launch this project. Three new public artworks for the Forks in Winnipeg.

Acts of Compassion is curated by Dr. Julie Nagam