NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. – The City of North Battleford is strongly condemning a piece of graffiti, calling it a cheap and cowardly act after “KKK” was spray-painted on a local billboard.
Mayor Ian Hamilton said he became frustrated when he noticed it a week ago.
“We certainly condemn it, very vigorously. The destruction of private property, in this manner, is a poor image for the city,” said Hamilton.
The billboard was not city-funded but in a press release Monday the city said it is proud to have brought its creators together.
“This is basically a commercial billboard and the artists had the means to place this image on a billboard and they did so, on their own,” said Hamilton.
Workshops were held at The Chapel Gallery with project leader Sandra Semchuk, who is an associate professor at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
First Nations band member and resident of North Battleford Mary Culbertson was part of the workshop about reconciliation this past summer.
“I told the story about what happened in Geneva in 2004 where a Navaho elder stood up and he said this statement and it was one of the impactful moments that secured article three to become part of the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous people and I love that story,” said Culbertson.
According to city officials, the artists produced a message about the relationship between Canada’s aboriginal people and the rest of society.
“It was a twofold message. Number one, that we were born with self-determination and it shouldn’t be a question if we have it or not … We’ve been so used to having our rights repressed and not talking about them in any context whether it be legal or international rights level or anywhere even our own First Nation,” said Culbertson.
“The other message was to educate the public, the non-First Nations people.”
Culbertson says Semchuk thought her vision should be the outcome of the workshop and the billboard was put up on Oct. 9. It was defaced by Oct. 21.
“I was a little bit hurt but on the other hand, unfortunately I expected something, because whenever we say anything it’s got to be attacked whether it’s on social media or in public,” said Culbertson.
The city says it is difficult, if not impossible, to know what the vandal intended to communicate and it might simply have been a surface of convenience.
“I just think it was a thoughtless act, not one that was done with any kind of sophistication or anything like that … I won’t give it the credit for that,” said Hamilton.
“It’s just not worthy, such an act of disrespect and destruction of property is not acceptable.”
Culbtertson says it was most-likely intentional for someone to make the climb up to the billboard.
“I think it was an attempt to make a comment on it, you don’t often see those three letters just plastered wherever,” said Culbertson.
Hamilton assures there is no common use of racist graffiti in North Battleford.
“Those particular images, no, but we certainly have our fair share of graffiti just like any other community for that matter. People who do this for fun, I don’t understand, it’s destruction of property and senseless in my opinion,” said Hamilton.
“Using the ‘KKK’, it’s not always associated with any kind of racism necessarily, I mean, it’s just some person’s sick idea of making a statement of their own.”
In the release, the city says this incident will only serve to strengthen its resolve as a community if the graffiti was meant to foster hatred.
“I was hoping nothing would happen and it would create dialogue but, I mean, it obviously has created dialogue because somebody didn’t like it,” said Culbertson.
Hamilton does not think the RCMP will be involved and this act could only be interpreted as hate literature by a court.
“Our responsibility would be to get it cleaned up as quickly as possible,” said Hamilton.
The vandalized billboard was taken down Monday and replaced with a different one.
Culbertson says this incident has not deterred her from expressing her thoughts and ideas through art.
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