Adrian Stimson to Design Canada's Monument to Afghanistan Mission

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A digital rendering of a portion of Canada’s proposed Monument to the Afghanistan Mission. (courtesy Team Stimson)

The federal government has chosen a design concept by Adrian Stimson, a member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) First Nation in southern Alberta, for a new national monument in Ottawa to honour Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay said Monday that Stimson's design emerged as the frontrunner after consultations with the public and stakeholders, including veterans.

The monument, to be built across the street from the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, will honour the 40,000 Canadians who served in Afghanistan after Canada pledged its support in 2001 to international efforts to combat terrorism. The mission, which continued to 2014, was Canada's most complex – and, with 158 deaths of Canadian military members along with thousands of Afghan civilians, the deadliest – since the Korean War. 

Stimson, a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, served at CFB Esquimalt on Vancouver Island. He spent time in Afghanistan with the Canadian Forces Artist Program in 2010.

"While I was there, I became interested in the physical materiality of the bases, the industrial nature of embedding troops into the theatre of war," Stimson said Monday. 

"Mimicking this, the monument is a place to be discovered and to be revealed. The monument enlivens as you approach on a meandering pathway, revealing itself slowly, with purpose."

The announcement said Stimson's design "draws on elements of healing from the Medicine Wheel and takes the form of a circular, sacred space of safety, a home base of reflection, memory and contemplation."

"It is made up of four portals, where an interior area is the sanctuary where the fallen are remembered. Inscribed on the walls of three of the quadrants is the year, names of the fallen and maple leaves, in several rows. The fourth southeast quadrant wall facing the direction of Afghanistan is dedicated to fallen Afghan allies. In the centre, four bronze flak jackets stand draped on crosses – utilitarian yet poignant reminders of protection."

MacAulay said Stimson's design "captures the intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical aspects of war." 

It will likely take several years to construct the monument, promised by former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper in 2014.

Source: Veterans Affairs