An Aboriginal-Style Christmas Story

Various aboriginal images and symbols surround the figure of Mary cradling the Christ child in the Woodland Cree-style painting that was recently part of an exhibit of seventeen paintings at the Indian Metis Christian Fellowship (IMCF), a Christian Reformed Church in North America-supported center in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Called “Kisê-manitow Omiyikowiswin” or “The Creator’s Gift,” the series depicting the Christmas story was created by Ovide Bighetty, a self-taught artist originally from the Pukatawagan First Nations in northern Manitoba. The exhibit ran Nov. 14-15 at the center before moving for a longer stay at nearby Sonlight Christian Reformed Church.

“All of these paintings were taken from the Christmas story of when Jesus was born,” said Bighetty in a phone interview. Each painting comes from a particular passage of Scripture. “The first one shows when the angel visits Mary, telling her she’ll conceive. Each painting tells a different part of the story from the Luke and Matthew texts,” says the artist.

Although his work distinctly follows the biblical stories of the Savior’s birth, says Bighetty, each painting also uses a range of native symbols, from figures of people and animals to scenes of the outdoors, that are painted in a particular style. It is a style he learned by studying the work of Norval Morrisseau, an Ojibwe artist and founder of the Woodland school, also known as Legend or Medicine painting.

Some of the images in the paintings in the new series come from native lore while others he imagined himself as he contemplated the verses in the Bible.  “I hope the story comes across in a certain visual way,” he said.

Bighetty has done work for IMCF before. In January 2002, Bert Adema, IMCF Director, commissioned Bighetty to create a series of images depicting the Easter Story. He painted “Kisemanito Pakitinasuwin – The Creator’s Sacrifice” in acrylic on canvas encased in a cedar frame.

In 2006, Bighetty was commissioned to create twelve pieces illustrating the teachings known as “Steps Along the Red Road Following Christ the Creator.” For each image, says Adema, “Ovide selected an eagle feather to emphasize the sacred aboriginal spirituality of the teachings. The images, the feathers, and the teachings are integrated in shadow boxes constructed of birch, Plexiglas, and Baltic birch plywood.”

Last year, Adema commissioned the artist to do the series of paintings on the Christmas story.  Bighetty says he needed to consult with elders and members of the community to get a clear focus for his paintings before coming up with sketches. Once the series was narrowed to seventeen paintings, he worked on them at a table in his house from about 8 a.m. until midnight almost every day for four months.

“I worked on them steady. It was fun doing them,” he says. “I hope the people get the message and enjoy the paintings.”

A traditional teaching amongst the First Nations of Turtle Island, says Adema, is that before Europeans crossed the ocean, native elders had visions of people coming from the east with messages from the Creator.

“This ancient tradition resonates with the mandate of Indian Metis Christian Fellowship to encourage aboriginal people to claim, develop, use, and celebrate the individual and cultural gifts they have received from the Creator,” says Adema. “The tradition and the mandate provided the inspiration for IMCF’s commissioning of Ovide Bighetty to create three unique series of paintings.”