The AGAWA THUNDERBIRD
Symbol of Algoma University College
The Algoma University College symbol is a stylized
Thunderbird, free of the traditional symbols of heraldry. There is
no motto. The virtues of the Thunderbird proclaim themselves.
The Keewatinung Institute describes them thus:
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"The Thunderbird has always been a
part of the body and spirit of all native tribes of North America, figuring
in stories, dances, religion, and everyday life. It gave to our people
thunder, lighting, rain -- cleansing and giving power to the earth, and
to the people, power to survive and worship the Great Spirit. Today,
it remains very important to us symbolizing our long hope to emerge from
a dark past into a bright future of cultural and spiritual freedom for
our people in the land our grandfathers left us. The Thunderbird
is not a forgotten effigy on a weather worn rock or on a string of beads.
It is alive and real to our people as the thunder, lightning, and rain
of every summer storm that is given us."
Rolland Nadjiwon
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The cultural and spiritual freedom symbolized
by the Thunderbird expresses the ideals of the liberal arts. The
identification of this particular stylization is with the Algoma region.
It was developed by Mrs. Dora de Pederey-Hunt, the well known Canadian
sculptress, from Indian pictographs in the Agawa Bay area. The description
was written for the College by Mr. Rolland Nadjiwon, Director of the Keewatinung
Institute which shared the Shingwauk campus with Algoma University College
until 1975. Algoma University College adopted the Thunderbird as
its emblem in 1972 after its relocation with the Institute to the campus
of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School in 1971. |
