source: Farm and Food Report
He’s a quiet farmer from Davidson, and his art has changed the face of many towns along Highway 11 between Saskatoon and Regina. His name is Don Wilkins. His craft: sculpture.
“I have always had an interest in the history of the old Northwest. Some of us along the highway wanted this history to be featured more prominently in the region. We approached the provincial government with a view to have Highway 11 renamed Louis Riel Trail.”
“Riel travelled through our region, first while returning from Montana to help his fellow Metis prior to the Resistance of 1885, then again on his final journey to Regina, where he was tried and hung. We wanted this recognized, and we needed a way to illustrate Riel’s journey vividly.”
Wilkins, an accomplished welder thanks to his farm background and experience restoring 10 antique cars, figured he could start building an iron cut and welded buffalo, and a Red River cart for display along the highway at Girvin.
“The buffalo was such an important resource to fur traders, to the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company, and so central to the lives of Plains people. Of course, the Metis had a relationship with the buffalo that was distinct from that of First Nations. Because I have two Metis grandchildren, I want them to feel their roots matter.”
Wilkins started planning out his project on the floor of his shop, using sketches and grids.
“I started with the Red River cart. That is my signature piece. I make them 20 per cent larger than real life so they can be viewed more easily from the highway. I actually just finished my twelfth Red River cart.”
Wilkins currently has five major sculptures positioned along Highway 11. They are one-eight of an inch thick. The big ones have internal frames.
One sculpture represents a surveyor—an iconic figure in the context of Euro-Canadian settlement in the Plains region.
“Surveyors had a huge impact on Metis settlement because of the river lot system the Metis had used to settle at Batoche and along the South Saskatchewan River. The surveyors—often despite themselves—were very disruptive to the Metis life, and their coming to the Northwest was at the root of the ‘troubles’ that ensued.”
Wilkins also erected a cart and ox at Aylesbury; Craik has a sculpture of the Metis buffalo hunter, holding the very effective buffalo gun; and Dundurn has the bone gatherer figure combined with a horse and cart.
“Bone gatherers were symbolic of activities around the remains of the buffalo during the last part of the 19th century, sometime after the great big herds had been decimated. The bone gatherers picked up these white shiny bones that stuck out of the ground before the ploughshare hit the sod, to be processed in fertilizer plants.
“I made the bone gatherer holding a buffalo skull in his hand, pausing for a moment, pondering what life must have been like here years before… just before tossing the skull into the pile.”
Wilkins has plans for making a Metis fiddler as a celebration of life, hunting, and great social gatherings among Metis society.
“I will build this Metis man 12 feet tall and playing the fiddle. I also have plans to make a First Nations woman to honour those without whom the Metis Nation could not have existed. My close Metis friends provide guidance for my projects, as do my grandchildren.”
Don Wilkins’ works certainly stand out, because of his attention to detail. Yet the sculptures are relatively unadorned. Perhaps this is what endows them with character.
“I have mixed feelings about covering them with paint, so I do not use it. The sculptures have a rusty surface as a result. I have noticed that this way, people get closer and appreciate them more thoroughly.
Most importantly perhaps, people stop for a moment and take in a bit of the significance of the events that took place in time over this territory. Thus, the Northwest is still part of living memory along the Louis Riel Trail.
For more information, contact:
Don Wilkins
President
Louis Riel Trail Association
(306) 567-4306
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