Meet The Artist: Saskatchewan Roughriders Indigenous Logo Chris Chipak
10/03/2024 07:10 PM
“Hi, I’m Chris Chipak. I’m from Red Pheasant Cree Nation, and I’m Plains Cree.
Growing up on the reservation, I really took what I had there for granted. I grew up seeing the land, waking up to the skies with all the colours they showed, and going to bed with the skies being the complete opposite colours. My backyard was basically open fields, forests, nature, and wildlife. Moving into the city for university definitely made me reflect a lot during this logo design on my childhood—the moments of seeing coyotes, deer, and all types of wildlife. It really took me back to those times when I'd be colouring next to my family, then getting bored and starting to draw. It made me reflect a lot on my childhood on the reserve and the sense of community and acceptance I had there. I really wanted that to be part of this logo.
I wanted everyone to feel like, “I belong here. This makes me feel at home. This makes me resonate with the prairies.” I wanted to show that in the design. When I created this design, I wanted it to be something that screamed prairies—not just Regina or Treaty 4, but something that represented us as a whole province. When I first started, I thought of a buffalo. The buffalo was roaming these lands before Canada even began—and when Canada did start, it was with the separation of land through treaties. On the other side of the design, I wanted to acknowledge the treaty promise: “As long as the sun shines, the river flows, and the grass grows,” we need to share this land and work together.
Truth and Reconciliation, to me, are two powerful words. I don't know if we'll ever, in our time, be able to say: “Oh, I know what it means, I know what it feels like, I know what it looks like.” With this logo, I hope it creates openness for people to talk about it—to even attempt to have an open conversation about what reconciliation means to them. Hopefully, they do it with youth, and youth can grow with that knowledge and pass it down as well. Hopefully, we can start taking baby steps toward understanding and feeling what reconciliation truly is.”
Take a look at Chris’ work, and shop the incredible collection, now at The Rider Store.
