Thursday, September 13 saw "words that are lasting" by Hannah Claus, an artist of Kanien’kehá:ka and English heritage from Montreal, be installed in our Atrium – a key piece of public art for the Faculty of Law.
The artwork is based on wampum belts, which record nation-to nation agreements and governance structures for Eastern Woodland nations, and for the Haudenosaunee in particular. The words within a wampum belt are meant to last “as long as the waters flow, the sun shines and the grasses grow”. The suspended installation represents various historical belts and includes one belt invented by the artist to represent the three nations acknowledged as the custodians of this territory: the Mohawk, the Algonquin and the Mississauga.
Queen’s Law will be having a public celebration of this major work on September 28 at 12:30 p.m. in our Learning Commons.
A small preceding ceremony chiefly for Indigenous invitees will take place at 11:30 am. While space constraints keep us from inviting the general public to this part of our unveiling, we will be live streaming this ceremony at http://www.queensu.ca/its/livestream/live.html