Indigenous symbol of high honour engraved on Canada Sevens rugby gold medals
EDMONTON -
Galleries, homes, retail centres… and, now, Lance Cardinal can add sports stadiums to the list of places his work will grace.
The Indigenous artist from Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 designed the gold medals that will be awarded to World Rugby's Canada Sevens Series champions in September.
"This is absolutely one of the best honours I've ever had in my life," Cardinal told CTV News Edmonton.
Rugby Canada reached out to him in search of something representative of First Nations people.
"Wow," Cardinal remembers thinking. "What a great opportunity."
The finished design, called "Honouring Feathers," features two feathers bordered by ribbon.
"I really wanted to choose the eagle feather because for our people, the eagle feather is something that's given at a very high level of honour. We give eagle feathers to people to recognize them for something they're done in their life. For a moment in their life that's important, like a graduation, or even like a coming-of-age ceremony," Cardinal explained.
"It was really the same process to design this medal that I always do. I think about what the message is, what are we trying to say with the piece, and like I said before, it's all about honouring people: honouring the people of Treaty 6 territory as well as honouring the competitors in the rugby championship."
It's the first medal Cardinal has designed, and it's the first time his work will appear in the sporting arena.
"I'm not even a rugby fan to be honest. I don't know much about the sport," he admitted. "But I always look at my work as an opportunity to share the culture more, to bring who we are as Indigenous people into different kinds of spaces."
"They're coming from all over the world… I really wanted to make sure they saw who we are, that we are an honourable people. That we approach people with love and open arms."
Canada Sevens' tournament at Commonwealth Stadium on Sept. 25 and 26 will be one of six stops in the World Rugby Sevens Series world tour.
As of Aug. 9, a 12th team had yet to be confirmed.
A women's sevens "fast 4" event will also be played as part of the tournament that weekend between Canada, U.S.A., Great Britain and France.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Kyra Markov
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