Artwork by Saskatchewan Indigenous artists donated to Exeter College

Exeter College has strong links with Canada’s Saskatchewan province, stretching back almost 100 years to when Canadian Francis Leddy came to Exeter on a Rhodes Scholarship, completing a DPhil in Ancient History in 1938. He went on to teach at the University of Saskatchewan and serve as secretary of the committee responsible for selecting Saskatchewan Rhodes Scholars – consistently advising recipients to pick his alma mater, Exeter, for its warm welcome that would quickly put them at ease. A steady stream of Rhodes Scholars from the province followed. 

This bond between Exeter and Saskatchewan was marked in 1985 with the opening of a lecture theatre, the Saskatchewan Room, at Exeter’s Turl St site, which was made possible by the generosity of alumni from Saskatchewan. It was further celebrated in 2011, when a floret from Exeter College Chapel – retained when the Chapel masonry was restored in 2008 – was installed on a pillar in the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist in Saskatchewan’s capital city, Saskatoon.  

Yesterday, to honour these ties, Indigenous leaders from Saskatchewan visited Exeter College and donated pieces of Indigenous art for display in the Saskatchewan Room. Exeter College Rector, Dr Andrew Roe, was delighted to welcome Tammy Cook-Searson, Chief of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, Matt Vermette, COO of the Métis Nation, and Cheyenna Hunt, Director of Lands and Consultation at the English River First Nation. They were joined by current Rhodes Scholars from Saskatchewan for lunch in Exeter’s Jacobean dining hall. Rector Roe was then presented with the artwork, which included a birch bark basket from English River First Nation and a birch bark painting from Lac La Ronge Indian Band, with another piece from the Métis Nation to arrive at a later time. The art will be displayed in the Saskatchewan Room, complementing the photographs of the Canadian Midwest that already decorate the walls.