The federal government has revealed the design it has selected for the National Monument to Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan that began in 2001.
More than 10,000 Canadians gave feedback on the five finalist designs, with the majority being veterans, their families and others who served on the mission.
The design from the team of visual artist Adrian Stimson, a member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) First Nation in southern Alberta and a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces who has been to Afghanistan, was chosen by the government as the winner.
His team’s design was favoured by respondents and received between 52 and 62 per cent support across all questions, according to the government.
Stimson has tried to capture through his art what he and other Canadians experienced in Afghanistan. Canada pledged its support to the international fight against terrorism in 2001 and deployed military forces to Afghanistan, a mission that lasted more than a decade.
More than 40,000 Canadians in uniform served in the region as well as hundreds of civilians and government officials. One hundred and fifty-eight Canadian Armed Forces members and seven civilians died.
The monument will be built across the street from the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. The design draws on elements of healing from the Indigenous Medicine Wheel in its circular shape with four quadrants, each with two walls representing stories of Afghanistan from Canadian perspectives and with their own themes. The themes include the spiritual, the physical, the emotional and the intellectual.
The interior is meant to reflect the feeling of safety within an operating base, according to Stimson, and features four bronze flak jackets draped on crosses, an image that the artist had seen himself in Afghanistan.
The jackets encircle a map of Afghanistan that is surrounded by 13 maple leaves, one for each province and territory and representing the 13 years of the mission.
“Each portal is an entrance unto itself yet taken together, they create a deeper opportunity to honour and reflect, to seek balance and healing for all Canadians,” Stimson said in a video overviewing the design.
Three of the quadrants’ walls will have the year and the names of Canada’s fallen, while a fourth wall will face the direction of Afghanistan and will be dedicated to fallen Afghan Allies.
“Canadians will always remember the brave Canadian Armed Forces members who served in Afghanistan, including those who lost their lives in service of Canada,” Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Veterans Affairs, said in a statement.
“The National Monument to Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan will provide all Canadians with a place to reflect and commemorate our heroes.”
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