by Edith Cody-Rice
The team that has brought to life the Seven Gifts in Riverfront Park (321 Spring Street, Almonte) on the Mississippi River. includes two talented carvers: Nish Nabie in wood and Deborah Arnold in stone.
Nish Nabie
Nish Nabie, the team’s indigenous wood carver, is carving the seven animals, each representing a teaching or gift, that will grace the stone circle at the end of Spring Street in Almonte. He calls the seven gifts the Seven Grandfather teachings. The animals are
- Turtle – Truth.
- Buffalo – Respect.
- Raven – Honesty.
- Wolf – Humility.
- Beaver – Wisdom.
- Bear – Courage.
- Eagle – Love.
The animals are then cast in wax by Darlene McLeod, using a lost wax technique, and further cast into bronze by Almonte sculptor Dale Dunning. All of the animals are now completed and in place on the circle except the final eagle, representing love.
Nish Nabie is a member of the Algonquin first nation. As he pointed,out people in Ottawa are unaware that there are 10 federal reserves spanning Eastern Ontario and Quebec, accommodating 14,000 Algonquins that are alive and well. Many communities remain intact, speaking their own language.
Traditional elders taught Nish from a young age to respect animals. He became an asset to the Algonquin nation as a sustenance hunter. He knew animals from spending so much time in the bush and the forest.
When he moved to the Ottawa Valley Nish was suffering from PTSD after his experience as a first nation police officer. During his attendance at a native healing lodge which practised holistic healing using art, Nish was inspired to carve a moose for a therapy counsellor. He has now been carving for 10 years. Nish carves in basswood, moose and deer antler and produces jewelry as well as sculpture. When carving in wood, he sculpts both in the round and in relief. Nish does not use photography in his art. He can close his eyes and know what eagles and beavers look like.
All of Nish’s work is accomplished with a Switzerland hand work chisel and mallet His style follows the beginnings of carving in the Ottawa Valley. Europeans who came here were mostly German and Polish and English. They brought their trade as artists over to their new country and some would do carvings and sell them on the side of the road. Their art work prospered and Nish has been inspired by their talent.
When asked what the Seven Gifts project meant to him, Nish stated that his nation needs to start from zero because for over 550 years his culture and ceremonies have been lost. He became involved in the project about two years ago when he met elder Larry McDermott who asked him to carve an eagle to go with Larry’s eagle staff. That project took a year and was much praised. When All My Relations, the organization behind the Seven Gifts project, saw it they asked him to participate.
Deborah Arnold
Deborah Arnold arrived in Ottawa by way of New York where she was working in theatre management. Having married a Canadian, she could not find work in Ottawa as she was not bilingual so she decided to go to art school at the Ottawa School of Art. When she started stone cutting, she felt an immediate deep and profound connection to the stone.
After three sojourns in Italy, in 1995, 1997 and 1999, carving in Carrera marble, Deborah found that she had changed her view of nature. The stone, to her, incorporated the earth, time and history and had its own sense of rhythm and space. It makes you look at the passage of time.
Deborah’s carvings are not representational art. She aims to release the spirit and beauty of the stone itself and her work is extraordinarily beautiful. She has exhibited in group shows in Ottawa, Almonte, Oshawa, and Toronto, Ontario. In 2001, she completed a public art commission entitled The Power of Three, now installed in Almonte. In 2010, the National Cemetery of Canada acquired her work Inner Egg. In 2022, Canada’s Official Residences Crown Collection acquired her work Purple Fire. She has also completed several private commissions in Canada and the United States. She continues to work with raw stone, including selected forms of chlorite, alabaster, and marble from her Almonte studio.
In the seven Gifts Project, Deborah’s job is to find a home for each animal on their pedestals. The stone for the pedestals was donated by Tatlock Quarry and Deborah must measure and cut the stone to provide platforms for each bronze sculpture. Her goal in this project is to make her work invisible.
Deborah became involved in this project when Sue Evans, a member of All My Relations, saw one of Deborah’s stone carvings and asked her if she would like to participate. Deborah says it has been a great privilege working with the team and she has learned a great deal. She feels that when you walk into the stone henge-like circle, you feel you are in a sacred space
