Wolastokwi Cosmogenesis is my deliberate attempt to initiate a new Maliseet cosmogony that incorporates the Maliseet language, Maliseet oral traditions, Maliseet prayer, and the Maliseet landscape. The center of the arrangement of panels is intended to be the location of the Tobique Rock at the confluence of the Tobique and Saint John Rivers. The background landscape is a reconstructed 360˚ primordial landscape as seen from the Tobique Rock.
Four of the twelve panels are oriented to the four cardinal directions where East represents the first light of dawn, the first line of prayer, and the direction for new beginnings. On each of the twelve large panels there are five smaller panels which acknowledge the five Wabanaki Nations. The large birchbark panel represents my adaptation of a traditional art form that illustrates a particular line of the Maliseet prayer. The smaller hand print panel is my signature as well as a marker indicating location in the prayer. The text panels provide the line of prayer in Maliseet and English. The smaller panel depicts the traditional food Mahsosial (fiddleheads) as symbolic of Tobique First Nation. The smallest panel is a reinterpretation and revitalization of a tradition birchbark pattern.
Together, arranged in a circle, the twelve panels are intended to be a space for prayer and/or meditation. The process of designing, constructing, and experiencing Wolastokwi Cosmogenesis was (and continues to be) an act of prayer itself. I invite you to join me in this Maliseet prayer of thanks.