Mural for slain Aboriginal woman

Mural honours slain Calgarian woman

By Suzanne WiltonWhen Gloria Black Plume was stomped to death in a Ramsay alley, local artist Xstine Cook vowed to honour the aboriginal woman with a mural in the southeast inner-city community.

Cook made good on that promise, unveiling Sunday an art installation on the door of her garage that faces the alley where Black Plume was slain 11 years ago.

"I hope she rests in peace," an emotional Cook told a group of the woman's relatives who attended the unveiling of the colourful mural that was spray painted by a young aboriginal artist, Jesse Gouchey.

It was in March of 1999 that Black Plume's bloodied and battered body was discovered in the lane behind a home--which Cook would later move into--in the 1000 block of 20th Avenue S.E.Comment:  For more art for Native crime victims, see Helen Betty Osborne Graphic Novel and Art Show for Missing Aboriginal Women.

Below:  "Selina Medicine Shield admires a mural unveiled in southeastern Calgary on Sunday that was painted in memory of her grandmother, Gloria Kaily Black Plume." (Gavin Young/Calgary Herald)