Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 26/99) - After 33 hours spread over four days, NWT's Arctic Spirit Sculpting Team finished their depiction of a Dene legend, entitled End of the World, in front of a national audience.

The three-member team of Dolphus Cadieux, Paul Jackson and Francois Thibault returned from the second annual Canada Snow Sculpture Competition last weekend. The event was part of Winterlude, 1999.

"We brought the End of the World to Parliament Hill," Thibault said.

Each province and territory was represented in the contest that saw Saskatchewan take home first prize. Although not officially recognized as winners, Cadieux said Arctic Spirit carved one of the most talked about sculptures on the Hill.

"We chose something we thought we could depict from a Dene book of legends and something we felt people could relate to," Cadieux said.

The 5.4-metre (18 feet) high carving used 84 dump-truck loads of packed snow. The front was of a caribou, the back a waterfall, the right side an Arctic Duck Chieftain and the left side an elder building a canoe.

A Dene drum depicted the separation of Earth from the higher world while two bears on the drum watched over a tree. The tree holds all the power of the elements in bags dangling from the branches.

Jackson, a computer animator, created a 3-D animated version of the complex design for the computer.

"Mostly, we did it to understand the structure and dimensions of what we wanted to create," Jackson said.

"By using the computer, we could determine if it would fall over, where we would start cutting and what angle to cut at."

Cadieux said the team hopes they have the opportunity to go back next year.

"I think we represented the territories well. We got lots of exposure," Cadieux said, adding they were broadcast nationally on CBC and were featured in an xxxOttawa Citizen story.

"Next year, I think we'll definitely give it another whirl."

Thibault is currently trying to set up a snow-carving competition for the Caribou Carnival. For more information or applications, contact Thibault at his Originals By T-BO store and studio in the Centre Square Mall.