The mural Buffalo Woman Helping Call Your Spirit Home adorns one of the holding cells at the Tsuut'ina Nation Police Service station.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail
A vibrant painting depicting seven white horses and a tipi under a bright blue sky adorns a wall of an unlikely place: the Tsuut’ina Police Service Station.
The artwork is one in a collection of new culturally significant murals that are meant to provide comfort and moments of reflection for people during incarceration.
There are four in total – Mother Earth, The Son, Four Pole Foundation, and Buffalo Woman Helping Call Your Spirit Home. All include traditional imagery and symbols of family, healing, education and encouragement, and were created by Tsuut’ina artists Nathan P. Meguinis and Keegan Starlight. They appear in the station’s holding cells.
“I have a chance to help and plant a seed for people to do something positive,” Mr. Meguinis said of his contribution.
Tsuut'ina artist Nathan P. Meguinis stands in front of his mural called Four Pole Foundation inside one of the holding cells at the Tsuut'ina Nation Police Service station on Jan. 21, 2022.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail
Tsuut'ina artist Keegan Starlight describes his artwork inside one of the holding cells.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail
The initiative was conceptualized four months ago by Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service Inspector Dawn-Lyn Blake of the Community Impact and Innovation Unit. She tried to reflect on police processes through the eyes of those who come through the station. How could she provide moments of impact for those individuals?
The murals are “a way to humanize incarceration.” Insp. Blake said. “We wanted to provide a safe place of comfort that allows a space for conversation.”
Buffalo Woman Helping Call Your Spirit Home, by Nathan P. Meguinis.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail
Mother Earth, by Keegan Starlight.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail
One of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action in its 2015 report was for governments to provide culturally relevant services to inmates, something that Insp. Blake said police services have been slow to adopt because of systemic problems.
“It’s that hard, sterile and colonial system and process. It’s just time for a change, we’re so overdue,” she said.
For Mr. Meguinis, the project was a chance to inspire and provide hopeful messages in what traditionally has been viewed as a cold and imposing white room.
“If I can put an image out that propagates the right idea, that’s what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Mr. Starlight agrees that art in places such as police stations can play an important role in the rehabilitation process – and the Indigenous community’s perception of the police.
“I want people to know that if you come here, you’re protected and that there’s some sort of connection, a purpose. It’s an honour to do a piece like this,” he said.
Painting began just before Christmas and was completed at the end of January.
The murals are just part of the efforts by the Tsuut’ina Police Service to provide culturally relevant services. Other initiatives include words of a traditional Tsuut’ina prayer painted on a phone-room wall, and a “soft room” for family members to smudge and pray. It hopes to eventually have culturally relevant literature in the holding cells.
The Tsuut’ina Nation is an Athabaskan Dene First Nation with a population of around 2,400 residents, on the south-west border of the city of Calgary. The Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service has 26 sworn members and 15 non-sworn members and provides police services to communities both on and off the nation.
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