Thunderbird / Eagle

Stewart Steinhauer, son of the late Margaret Steinhauer of our congregation and Herb Steinhauer, is a Treaty Indian of mixed racial heritage. Born in the Saddle Lake area, he began carving in 1973 and by 1990 had decided to become a full time Cree artist. His sculptures in granite as well as his soapstone carvings have been exhibited in the West End Gallery in Edmonton, Canada House Gallery in Banff as well as in galleries in Victoria, Calgary, Stratford in Ontario and at his home studio in Saddle Lake. His work speaks of respect for the natural world and his commitment to his spiritual understanding of "the rock of the earth", the Great Mystery.

The Thunderbird/Eagle was created by Stewart Steinhauer and gifted to Southminster-Steinhauer United Church by his mother, Margaret Steinhauer, in August 2003.  It stands in front of our church.

The following is the sculptor's description of the Thunderbird/Eagle.

"This is a fitting image to honour my noble ancestor, Henry Bird Steinhauer, who was born a member of the Bird Clan, in southern Ontario. This clan name was considered so sacred that people would not speak it out loud, but rather would leave an appropriate silence in the middle of a sentence to indicate just whom they were speaking about. Indigenous knowledge is deeply linked to the immediate environment, and travels from the Great Mystery to the humble learner along what, in modern times, is called a spiritual pathway. Powerful forces, dimly understood, surround us, now as much so as ever, in our brief history on this fragile, lovely planet.

Over millennia, Indigenous knowledge-seekers found translation, and explanation for these forces, in the natural world all around them. Following the spiritual pathway step by step, in the present moment, they were able to maintain a harmony and balance that we in the modern world can only wonder at."