Residents and visitors in Lethbridge will notice new Oki signs spread throughout the city. Six new signs, which will be wrapped with local Indigenous artwork, are hosted by organizations within the community. Oki was adopted as the official greeting for the City of Lethbridge in 2019 and the two signs have been seen throughout the community at events and celebrations, which the city says were received well.
The six new signs can be seen at Park Place Mall, the university, the Galt museum, the public library, the Allied Arts Council and the Letrbidge and District Exhibition. Andrew Malcolm, urban revitalization manager for the city, says the art is expected to be added to them later this fall.
“I think it’s really great because there haven’t really been a lot of initiatives like this in the past. There’s more coming up now in this time of reconciliation and just to be on the forefront of that and on the ground and working within that is really exciting and it’s really going to be something that I tell my children about for the next generation,” said Cheyenne McGinnis, who contributed two pieces to the project.
The total budget for the project was $75,000 with partners contributing approximately 53 per cent of the funds. City funding was cost-shared between the Opportunity Lethbridge and Indigenous Relations departments.