SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, I'm Cheyenne Rain Legrand. I'm an artist from Big Stone Cookie Nation.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

You're this week's community champion. Tell me about your art and how much you have such an impact in the community.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

I've been a kind of professional practicing artist since 2019 and when I graduated from OnlyCar. And I've been been working in a Miskouchiwaskagan since then. And uh yeah, I've recently had the opportunity to create an amazing public art piece for Holock Park. And uh with this, my goal was to really honor the indigenous community here in Edmonton and create a piece that kind of speaks to Indigenous futurism. So a lot of my work I'm kind of working through intergenerational trauma, but kind of more speaking about my identity here today and kind of that journey of healing. And my work has come to a place of being about indigenous joy and indigenous resilience. And those are some of the things that I want um to be felt when people see my work is joy and love.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

That's amazing. So you were actually selected as one of BC's prize for BMO for the art prize. How did that make you feel getting recognized by the community?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

That was really, really cool. Um yeah, that's when I was like living in Vancouver and to, yeah, be recognized in that way in all of the work that I had done through school was is kind of really special because that was right after I graduated. So to receive that kind of recognition really, you know, as an indigenous person really made me believe what was possible and um that I could be an artist and kind of make a career out of being a professional artist.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

So, Shaga, your new art piece is going to be displayed at a local park here in Edmonton. Tell us more details.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Yeah, so this piece is really inspired by Indigenous Futurism. I was thinking a lot about uh beadwork and kind of this idea of wanting to enlarge a bead. So I started to think through more kind of contemporary bead forms like a beaded fringe earring. So this piece actually is going to be essentially a giant beaded earring. Um, and it's gonna include the colors of the rainbow to kind of speak about my queer identity and kind of honor um two spirit and queer peop indigenous people. And yeah, so it's gonna be 14 feet tall. It's made out of fiberglass, um, and the unveiling will be happening on May 30th. So I'm very excited to see this work um kind of go up. It's gonna be in front of the water, which will be so beautiful, and yeah, I'm just really thankful to get to share this work. Joanna, the unveiling will happen on May 30th at 11 a.m. I'm having my elder come. My mother is gonna sing, it's gonna be an amazing event.