Roots symbolizes my deep-rooted connection to my family, land, and heritage. My Oma was very big into her Indigenous culture, history and practices. When she moved away in 2009, and we purchased her house from her, she left behind a few things. I believe she left these things behind for me to find and keep. I found two book and card sets wrapped in hide. The first book is called Sacred Path Cards: The Discovery of Self Through Native Teachings by Jamie Sams, the second, Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals, by Jamie Sans and David Carson.

I decided to look through the books and discovered that many of the pages have been written on or underlined, showing important significance to my Oma and how she connected with each writing and card. It almost brought tears to my eyes to see her writing as her writing was very unique and I have never seen anything even close to it. I matched the card with the writing and read through it, and it made me feel connected to her again. I am not a religious person whatsoever, but I am spiritual. We had an on and off relationship with my Oma as she suffered from various types of mental illness and was a danger to herself and the people around her. I do have very warm memories of her, and I am so glad I still have these books as a way to connect with her now, even with her being gone almost 10 years.

I chose to have Roots placed out on the land, in the grass, in a specific spot that holds a lot of significance to me; my family and I had lived on the land for the first time while my Oma had owned it. The site where the rocks are placed is a great spot that overlooks the rest of the quarter section, showing the true beauty in the land. From this spot looking west you can see the beautiful mountains watching over us as the chinook brings in that warm winter breeze. Along with the wind, a musky smell of wet land travels towards the house and clashes with the smell of my mother and grandmas baking. It is such an odd combination, but there is nothing more heartwarming than the smell of home. The rocks I used for this piece are picked off of our land. I chose rocks that in a sense contrast each other. I did not want them to be perfectly round or show the same colour as I did not want it to seem fabricated.

After I chose the rocks, I went through the books and chose the animals I wanted to represent. My process of choosing the animals was to portray the ones that were of great importance to my Oma, but also related to me. The animals I have chosen are moose, badger, squirrel, hawk and wolf. A line my Oma underlined on the moose page is, “Self-esteem is the medicine of the moose”, which I relate too because growing up I had almost zero self-esteem. As I mature, I am finding that I am becoming more comfortable with who I am as a person. The next animal is a badger: “Become aggressive enough to do something about your present state of affairs.” I relate to this because I have always tried to work hard if I was not comfortable in a certain situation and used my strength in order to complete the task my way. The next animal is the squirrel. The line I really relate to is, “It is time to let go.” I hold a lot of resentment towards my childhood state of affairs, but every day I am working towards letting go of that anger and frustration. Hawk is one that was underlined a lot, and the quote I connect with the most from this reading is, “It is a sign to beware or be aware.” I have a hard time with this because I am very free-spirited and often do not think about the danger in a lot of situations. Finally, wolf: “Expand your limited view of the present situation.” When I read this, my mind instantly goes to the COVID pandemic the world is dealing with now which is causing school to be online. I am an introverted extrovert, which means, when I go out, I enjoy social events but can get overwhelmed easily, and do not mind my alone time. I just need to remember things could always be worse.

My connection to my parents' place and the land it is on runs deep. I have very vivid memories of when we lived here with my Oma in my early childhood. I remember sneaking the vegetables from my suppers to feed to the minis and catching grasshoppers to throw at my mom. I also have memories from when I was a teenager. I would sneak down the driveway in the pitch black and have a backpack with bottles clinking as I walked. So many memories live on this land that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I hope one day I will have the means to buy this place from my parents.