$10 from each Saamis Tepee Box goes to the Miywasin Friendship Centre!
Unleash your inner artist with the Shadow Box Paint Kit! Create unique shadow box designs with our easy-to-use paint kit. Perfect for all levels of creativity, this kit includes everything you need to make one-of-a-kind masterpieces. So get ready to paint, create, and have fun! (Warning: may cause excessive creativity and hours of enjoyment).
About the Saamis Tepee: Rick Filanti, a local businessman and immigrant from Italy, famously bid $100,000 to acquire the Olympic Tepee from the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, a structure conceived by architect R. Dorn to symbolize Canada's rich Indigenous heritage. The Tepee, built in Medicine Hat in 1991 through a partnership with the Saamis Tepee Association and featuring design by engineer Steve Illes, is a striking structure over 20 stories high, incorporating Indigenous artwork on ten storyboards that depict the history of Southern Alberta’s Indigenous people. The structure’s vibrant colors, white representing the home, red symbolizing the rising and setting sun, and blue representing flowing water , and the doorway faces east according with Indigenous traditions, welcoming the sun. Surrounding the Tepee is the Saamis Archaeological Site, a significant historical and archaeological area with artifacts dating back over 4,000 years, illustrating the deep roots of Indigenous habitation and cultural practices. In 1992, a storyboard committee of Indigenous artists was formed to create artwork that reflects the story of the Indigenous peoples, with their designs transferred onto the storyboards using murals that feature the colors of the Olympic rings, red, green, yellow, blue, and black, representing all the flags of the world. These murals symbolize the unity and shared stories of Indigenous nations and their enduring connection to the land and history of Medicine Hat.
Our Little Makery is located in Strathmore, AB.