Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 30/99) - A round disk takes shape at the peak of the large piece of stromatolite marble. This is the drum, source of the universal language of music, and also the sun, giver of life.

Long, undulating waves of music transform into water and set free three living creatures, fish, bear and eagle.

Sonny MacDonald, a carver from Fort Smith, labours over the arching fish, a Metis symbol. Eli Nasogaluak, a carver from Tuktoyaktuk, gives the bear a majestic form. For the purposes of this piece, the bear is the symbol of the Inuit and Inuvialuit.

Finally, the eagle, symbol of the Dene, flies from the stone under the hands of John Sabourin, Dene artist from Fort Simpson.

These cultural icons speak of spiritual strength, nature's gifts and man's responsibility.

A fourth artist, Armand Vaillancourt, has begun work on the massive natural backdrop formed by the sheer stony face of McAvoy Rock, in Yellowknife's Old Town.

Vaillancourt, a sculptor from Quebec, uses a relief carving method -- sandblasting a design into the natural rock surface.

Hand-picked by the Federation Franco-TeNOise -- a group of francophone organizations operating in the Northwest Territories based mainly in Hay River, Fort Smith and Yellowknife -- these four artists have been carving outdoors at the site.

Passers-by, both Yellowknifers and tourists alike, stop at the site and acquaint themselves with the nature of this monumental project.

Initiated in 1997 by federation director Daniel Lamoureux, the project was abandoned for some time due to lack of funding. The federal government's Millennium Fund allowed the project to be resurrected with the goal of participating in the shaping of a new NWT identity.

The project is also being supported by the GNWT's Education, Culture and Employment and Northern Services and Supplies.

The project's theme is "many cultures, one spirit, building the North together."

"It's not only tourists and visitors that stop by, Yellowknifers too," says MacDonald.

"They've been so good to us, they stop and talk, they bring us cake, cookies, banana loaf and watermelon."

MacDonald adds that the Sculpture of the North has become a community project, "the spirit of everyone is involved."

The piece was conceived by the team of artists during a workshop in early June.

Because the site is Crown land and part of an unsettled land claim, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, the commissioner of the NWT, the Department for Municipal and Community Affairs, the City of Yellowknife and the federation all had to come to an agreement.

"That process is supposed to take six months," says Regina Pfeifer, project consultant, "It took six weeks."

Next on the agenda: find a rock. There were three factors that led to the selection of this particular piece of stromatolite, a fossil from the Archean period, two and a half to four billion years old.

"We wanted the size, it had the shape closest to our design, and it couldn't be too hard for our tools," says Nasogaluak, who made the choice.

The three carvers revel in the find. The marble has natural, slightly darkened swirls, caused by the fossilization of the cyanobacteria out at the east arm of Great Slave Lake.

"The look of the marble, that just happened to come along. There's real nice colouring in there," says Nasogaluak, passing his hand over the partially sculpted marble and pointing out the very pale pink on the tip of the bear's nose.

Nasogaluak and MacDonald also point out the dark curving line of the original lichen-covered rock face, which descends from the drum/moon right to the base. This will be kept as a defining, contrasting line.

The three carvers work simultaneously, each on their section.

"Artists have a common goal," says MacDonald, when asked what it's like to collaborate at such close quarters, "To achieve what we set out to achieve. We're serious about the carving but we're always joking."