Beware the wihtikow.
In several of Neal McLeod's paintings, the frightening being bares its teeth and growls, glaring coldly and sending a shiver down the spine of the viewer.
"I remember when I was a kid, adults would say, 'quit fooling around and go to bed or the wihtikow will get you.' He is a bit like the bogeyman," said McLeod, laughing.
Wihtikow, pronounced wee-tuh-gow, is a Cree word to describe a being that is extremely greedy and consumes everything and everyone around it. In the process, it grows even more and more selfish.
"It consumes and consumes without regard for the future, only to satisfy short-term longings. It's unfettered greed, without restraint," said McLeod.
This being is frightening because it is the exact antithesis of Cree teaching. "From a very young age, Cree children are taught that your strength is shown in how generous you are."
McLeod, who grew up on James Smith Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, used wihtikow as a symbol in a collection of his paintings called "Sons of a Lost River," now on display at the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery.
He felt the being was an effective unifying symbol to tell the story of what happened to MÉtis and First Nations people in the wake of the 1885 North-West Rebellion.
The rebellion, which took place in the area later called Saskatchewan, was a brief and unsuccessful uprising by MÉtis people against the Dominion of Canada. The rebellion's leader, Louis Riel, was later hanged.
"(The rebellion) is what many of my people call 'the place when things went wrong,'" said McLeod.
He explained the "Lost River" in the exhibition's title is the Saskatchewan River, its North and South branches.
"Imagine the First Nations or MÉtis people before 1885. They've got a territory that's hundreds of thousands of kilometres on every side of them," he said.
"The conflict of the rebellion took place around the river.
"When the rebellion was finished, access to the river was restricted to the Aboriginal people who had lived on it and used it as a resource for centuries. Suddenly, their freedom of movement on the river was restricted.
"Then other things followed - the signing of the Indian Act, which put people on reserves and placed several restraints on them, and then residential schools were established."
The images in the paintings, often with the menacing wihtikow, reflect these ever-growing restrictions.
In one, an anguished person, gagged at the mouth by wihtikow, cries for help.
This is a student in a residential school, McLeod said.
In another, a city is depicted as a wihtigow.
"It's to show how the city has consumed my people, how urban life has 'eaten them up,' in a way. A lot of my people who live in the city are very, very poor, and we often hear how our women are exploited on the streets of cities."
But with all death and destruction, there is an opportunity for rebirth, another theme of McLeod's show.
Paintings also illustrate chance for rebirth and reclamation
While Neal McLeod's show of paintings now on display at the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery depicts the long, hard changes in the way of life for Aboriginal people, it also sees a chance for rebirth and reclamation of the old ways.
"Sons of a Lost River," the last painting of the exhibition that shares its name with the show's title, depicts a tall person, hands outstretched over a river, reclaiming the landscape and his identity.
"We need to find our way back to the lost river, learn the ancient wisdom, the language, the stories that helped Aboriginal people be good human beings."
Even one of the most frightening paintings in the show, which depicts a city as a being that devours its occupants, illustrates the opportunity for change, McLeod said.
The city can be a place of acceptance, he said, using his experiences in Regina as an example.
"When I was performing in a group called the Crow Hop CafÉ, which was a bunch of performers telling stories and singing songs and playing music with Aboriginal themes, it was a great success. There were always people waiting to get in the door."
But that's the beauty of art to McLeod, who is currently associate professor in the Native Studies Department at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont.
Art brings people together, he said.
"This gallery is a place of mutual respect," he said, gesturing to the walls that hold his paintings.
