Juwels LeGardi said she and an anonymous art collector, who acquired the large piece of jade, decided to create something historic and it was felt Chief Tecumseh would be ideal because he’s a local legend.
A Chatham artist has developed a new friendship by working closely with Walpole Island First Nation residents to gain valuable historical and cultural insight before creating a sculpture of Shawnee Chief Tecumseh from jade.
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Juwels LeGardi said she and an anonymous art collector, who acquired the large piece of jade, decided to create something historic and it was felt Chief Tecumseh would be ideal because he’s a local legend.
Tecumseh, fighting alongside British soldiers, was killed on Oct. 5, 1813 by American troops that made their way to the Thames River during the Battle of The Thames near the First Nation community of Moraviantown.
Although Tecumseh is well known in history, it was a challenge finding an image of the chief from whom to work, LeGardi said.
Tecumseh biographer John Sudgen has been quoted saying: “No authenticated portrait of the Shawnee leader exists.”
LeGardi contacted Dean Jacobs, a founding director of the Walpole Island Heritage Centre, now an independent consultant, for guidance and to learn more about Tecumseh.
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She said Jacobs provided a description of Tecumseh’s features which community members believe he possessed. She also drew inspiration from the stories she was told about the warrior and chief.
Jacobs admits being skeptical when first contacted by LeGardi “because I know, in the past, there’s been a lot of cultural appropriation.”
But after speaking with the artist, he said, “I quickly learned she was serious and she respected the process and wanted to make sure she was doing a good thing.”
Jacobs also consulted with Walpole Island elders before working with LeGardi.
“Basically, it’s an opportunity to renew the importance of one of our great warriors, Chief Tecumseh,” he said.
“Chief Tecumseh is a real, shared memory if it’s done correctly in the spirit of reconciliation,” he added. “By polishing the memory of Tecumseh in the time of reconciliation today, the true spirit of Tecumseh is alive and well today.”
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When asked how he helped LeGardi develop an image of Tecumseh, Jacobs said, “It really boiled down to a feeling, a presence of a leader like Tecumseh and what his message was.”
He believes LeGardi was “very successful in getting that through in the way that she sculpted the very special gemstone, jade.”
After finishing the piece, LeGardi said it was important to receive approval from the Walpole Island community so she brought it to the heritage center for Jacobs to be the first to see it.
She was pleased Jacobs and heritage center staff liked her work.
“That was a big deal to me,” LeGardi said.
“It is a relationship,” Jacobs said of working with LeGardi. “That’s what our inherent rights are about and the Treaties today that we’re all Treaty people, so it’s important that we continue that spirit of unity that Tecumseh was trying to get with the intertribal nations.”
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Jacobs believes the message of unity it is particularly relevant as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation nears on Sept. 30.
LeGardi drew on what she learned about Tecumseh during her time on Walpole Island to take the creative process to another realm, describing a spiritual conversation with Tecumseh to ask him to help guide her.
“I didn’t rely so much on my eyes as much on my hands and touch,” she said when creating the sculpture.
“I believe (Tecumseh) guided me through my hands to carve (the sculpture),” she added. “I believe he moved my hands exactly the way he wanted to look.”
The multi-media artist who works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpting, graphic design, photography and fashion design, was eager to work with jade for the first time.
LeGardi said the art collector brought the piece of jade to the Art and Heirloom Shoppe looking for someone to take on the challenge of creating a sculpture and her name came up.
“It was very exciting,” he said.
Her research also included learning how to work with the gemstone.
“Jade is one of the most difficult stones to work with,” she said, adding her sculpting tools kept breaking.
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