Little Bird
Before she passed on, my gret, great grandmother, three generations back and aged 108, insisted on meeting my mother.
My mother was 13 and went to her.
My great grandmother spoke to my mother only in the Dakota language,
sharing her love for her beautiful
grandchild through her stories and descriptions of the life she knew.
Anne Marie Carvanen did not realize the power
she had been given by the wise elder. Their eyes met, and it was at that moment
that she was home....
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Little Bird is an image of my great, great grandmother who is from the Dakota nation. She came to the island when she was 13 years old and married a west Coast Salish man and continued to speak the language all the way up until her death at 113 years. The story that I was told was that, before she died, she wanted to meet my mother, and talked a lot about her home and what she remembered about wild turnips, and how the Indian paintbrush grew up to her waist when she was in the fields. She loved birds and on her dress you see the symbols of all of the nations that had come together in her tribe's area, just before she moved to Vancouver Island during the late 1800s or early 1900s. I did the piece as a remembrance, and whenever I remember the image in my mind of my mother meeting her, I remember a description of her as violet, the same colour as a purple finch. So I did this piece for my great, great grandmother.
About the Original
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas/ Image Size: 20" x 28" / Created: August 2003
Availability: Private Collection
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