Iconography
In 2020-21, the Office of Indigenous Initiatives contracted three local and regional Indigenous artists to design Indigenous iconography to use in our communication materials. The three artists and their artwork are featured below.
Tsista Kennedy
Tsista Kennedy is a woodland-style artist from Beausoleil First Nation, and Oneida Nation of the Thames.
Tsista creates his artwork on canvas with acrylic paint and on paper with ink, as well as digitally. He has been creating this style of artwork since the age of 13, winning a Governor General's Award for his "Seventh Fire Leadership" in 2018.
Tsista designed the Snapping Turtle and Skydome.
Walter Darr Sands
Walter Darr Sands is a filmmaker, photographer and visual artist from Walpole Island First Nation. He is an alumnus of Fanshawe College and Western University, and recipient of the 2016 Karl Nathan Staats Award for Contemporary Media.
Darr created the logo for the Western University Indigenous Student Association, as well as the Thunderbird and Eagle depicted here. He is also the creative director for YCFWU skateboards and is currently an outreach worker at Atlohsa Family Healing Services.
Design de Plume
Design de Plume is an Indigenous-owned communication firm with more than 10 years of experience in providing accessible cultural services to First Nations, not-for-profits, governments and communities, to help them articulate their messages and make change. The firm serves all of Turtle Island with strategy, advice, design and development. Design de Plume created the Smudge and Lacrosse stick.
