A National Call for Art
Earlier this year, the CTN Indigenous Pathway opened a national art competition, inviting Indigenous artists across Canada to design a logo that could represent Indigenous values, traditions, and the spirit of the Indigenous Pathway itself. Nine submissions arrived from artists coast to coast, each bringing their own understanding of healing, culture, and resilience to the page.
Choosing a winner from work this thoughtful wasn't easy — but one design stood out for how clearly it spoke to the heart of what this program is trying to do.
Meet the Winner: Wennekerakon Tiewishaw
Wennekerakon Tiewishaw is a Mohawk artist from Kanehsatake. Their winning design takes the shape of a shawl — a garment with deep cultural resonance — and uses it to bring two systems of medicine into conversation with one another.
At the centre of the design is a helix: a shape that reads at once as a DNA strand and as the twin serpents of the caduceus, the long-standing symbol of Western medicine. Woven around it is a tobacco plant, one of the sacred medicines carried in many First Nations traditions, understood as a way of carrying voices forward to the Creator.
Wennekerakon described the thinking behind the piece simply: as Indigenous people navigate cancer treatment, there is often a real meeting of medicines — Western and traditional — that support a patient both physically and spiritually through an especially difficult time. The logo doesn't ask anyone to choose between those two ways of healing. It holds both at once.
Why This Design
For a program built on walking alongside Indigenous patients through clinical trials — trials that are, by definition, part of the Western medical system — a logo that honours both traditions felt like exactly the right symbol to lead with. It reflects what the Indigenous Pathway is trying to build in practice: care that doesn't require Indigenous patients to leave any part of themselves at the door.
Wennekerakon's design was awarded first place, along with a $2,500 prize and a $250 honorarium. It now appears across the Indigenous Pathway's website and materials — a small image carrying a much larger idea.
Thank You to Every Artist Who Submitted
While only one design could be chosen, all nine submissions reflected real thought, care, and cultural knowledge. We're grateful to every artist who took the time to share their vision with us, and we're looking at ways to celebrate more of that work in the future.