NSU to celebrate the addition of Monument to Forgiveness statue
Published: 2016-06-09
(Tahlequah, Okla.)-- Northeastern State University is set to host an unveiling ceremony for the Monument to Forgiveness onJune 20 at 10:30 a.m., at the south end of Beta Field on its Tahlequah campus.
The monuments artist, Francis Jansen will be participating in the ceremony to celebrate the statues return to NSU and its final journey to the end of the Trail of Tears. The program is open to the public.
The Monument to Forgiveness began as Jansens vision of what a large block of stone could be. In 1989 she traveled to Carrara, Italy to a large marble quarry where she was drawn to a block of marble that was 13 feet long and weighed eight tons. The Dutch-born artist began to see a Native American man in the piece of marble she began to sculpt.
After nine months of sculpting with a hammer and chisel, Jansen created Eagle Man, a seven-ton, 12-foot tall marble monument, which is now on display on Chumash ancestral land at the Santa Barbara Mission in California.
Jansen described the creation of this statue and a life-changing message. She felt that this monument was from her ancestors to the native people to encourage reconnecting in a way that doesn't change or disregard the past, but is a bridge to healing for all of us. Jansen says that forgiveness is that bridge.
Jansen launched a non-profit foundation, Transformation through Forgiveness, and through this non-profit a full-size bronze replica of Eagle Man standing on a large turtle base was created to travel to host destinations in the United States.
The statue, Monument to Forgiveness, has traveled to the Nez Perce Indian hunting grounds on Wallowa Lake in Joseph, Oregon, Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, NSU in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and the beginning of the Trail of Tears in Cherokee, North Carolina.
The final stop for the Monument to Forgiveness will be NSUs own Beta Field, as the artist has generously donated the monument to the university. Jansen hopes that placing the monument at NSU will foster reconciliation in perpetuity for the suffering endured by Native Americans along the Trail of Tears.