Pìwànak; Algonquin Centre of Science and Innovation (ACSI)

Pìwànak, meaning flint in the Anishinàbe Algonquin language, is a new 20,000 square foot science and innovation space at the Ottawa Campus. It brings together modern labs for biology, chemistry, and physics with teachings rooted in Indigenous knowledge. Large murals by artist Shalak Attack reflect the relationship between science, land, and community.

Pìwànak supports hands-on learning, applied research, and collaboration with industry partners. It offers students a place to explore new ideas while honouring the spirit of new beginnings carried in its name.

It is located on the first floor of A Building.

Pìwànak; Algonquin Centre of Science and Innovation (ACSI), Algonquin College A building. Dates: Feb–Sept 2025.

These murals bring land, science, and spirit into one image. It invites learning through Two-Eyed Seeing—honoring Indigenous knowledge and Western science through artistic expression.

Journey to Find Balance

(long entrance mural):

Enter the Science Centre and follow a painted path from land to lab.
You will leave holding both ancestral care and the scientific method.

Dawn opens at the left.
Tobacco and wild strawberries sit in the grass.
A moose moves through moss beside a ring of pale flowers — a gentle symbiosis
Ceremonial objects rest in the dawn light.
These are the first lessons: place, reciprocity, tending.

The path gathers hands and faces.
Elders braid stories into seed and soil.
Stories of harvest, healing and stewardship fold into small scenes.
Human, Spirit, and the natural world live in co-existence and embody the shared wisdom on their journeys

Portals begin to fold the land toward the centre.
Sky fragments. The constellations appear: wesakayckak, the trickster, and Namew, the sturgeon — star stories shared by Wilfred Buck and Ininew tradition.
Profiles soften into geometry. Ceremony and method meet.

At the heart watches the owl. Two eyes. Two promises.
The left eye keeps the forest’s memory.
The right eye opens to inquiry.
Pause here. Breathe. Choose both ways of seeing.

From the owl the world transforms — a slow, seamless change.
Roots loosen into spirals. Feathers thread into filaments.
Leaves curl into petri dishes. A drumbeat blurs into waveform.
Colors are born from light: atoms and molecules forming matter.
Microscopic views glow — bioluminescent cells, Green Fluorescent Protein, a creature lighting the deep.
Neurons flash messages and memories. Vibrant stem-cell patterns pulse like living mosaics.

The mural climaxes at the lab sunrise on the right.
DNA strands braid like rivers. Molecules bloom like constellations.
Microscopes and beakers sit among data streams and planetary gestures.
Science is shown as tool and continuation — discovery in service of care.

Small marks stitch the whole.
A water motif runs beneath every scene.
An Elder’s handprint reappears as a safety mark near the benches.
An owl feather threads the composition like a seam.

Two moments to try in the corridor:
• Pause beneath the owl before you enter. Let it remind you to check provenance, consult community knowledge, and consider impact.
• Trace the DNA strand on your way out. Let it prompt a practice change that reduces waste or honours local stewardship.

At the far right, behind the rising lab light, the original 1964 building plaque remains in view.
Its presence anchors the entire journey, a reminder that discovery at Algonquin College did not begin today.
The plaque carries the first chapter of this place: the early builders, the first learners, the foundation on which the Science Centre now stands.
Past, present, and future sit in one line of sight.
As the mural moves from land to lab, the plaque holds the College’s history steady — showing that every new idea grows from something built before.

This is one continuous story.
From tobacco and strawberries, through owl and star, to glowing cells and braided DNA — micro and macro hold hands.
It asks Algonquin College to teach, research and steward as one living practice.

Credits

The piece was co-created with Knowledge Keepers, the artist, architects, scientists, academics, and led by Facilities Management.
Project Director: Ahmed Waked; Senior Project Manager, Mohamed Zeid
Artist: Shalak Attack (Elisa Vivian Monreal;. Painting assistant, Bruno Smoky. Knowledge Keepers: Anita Tenasco, Lionel Whiteduck, Rene Tenasco, Brenda Odjick.
Architect: Bryden Gibson Architects (Suzanne Gibson). Academic lead: Adam Shane, Erin Stitt-Cavanagh
Medium: Acrylic and spray paint, free-hand. Size: 89.5 ft × 10.5 ft (939.75 sq ft). Location: Pìwànak Algonquin Centre of Science and Innovation Building A, Algonquin College. Dates: Feb–Sept 2025.

Tree of Life

(Stairwell square mural)

Ascend the stairwell.
Let the mural show you how life begins, holds, and becomes.

A round field opens like a lens — Earth, atom and petri dish at once.
Come closer. The circle asks you to look.

Begin in the soil.
Roots thread through dark microbiomes.
Medicinal roots and minerals nestle beside faint petroglyphs.
Here the land speaks first: the land is the first teacher.
Single cells pulse. Mitochondria glow. Earthworms, fungi, bacteria and even viruses play their part.
The underworld is alive and teaming.

A rocky path climbs with you.
Turtles sun on stones. A millennial freshwater sturgeon slips in painted currents. Eels weave between pebbles.
A family story stone — an ancient imprint — anchors time and continuity.
Strawberry and tobacco plants keep their medicine and spirit close.

At the center stands the Tree of Life.
Its roots spiral down as a DNA double helix.
A birch rises — a symbol of renewal, resilience and protection.
Birch bark remembers canoes, wigwams and woven baskets.
A bird in flight and a human profile meet at the trunk.
They link breath, memory and Earth.

Around the tree the landscape is local and sacred.
A river threads through rocks and waterfall. Boreal forest frames the scene.
New shoots rise; students and seedlings of the future.

Above, the sky opens.
Stars and constellations echo the helix below.
High-resolution microscopy and DNA/RNA forms sit beside natural textures.
Bioluminescent cells glow like deep-sea fireflies.
Neurons flash messages. Stem-cell patterns pulse.
The northern lights and moon cycles move through time.
Background marks hint at a universal, genetic code — micro and macro folding into one whole.

Under one canopy, people, plants and animals share a living system.
The mural is a map and a mirror. It asks you to notice, to learn, to protect.

Moments to reflect
• Pause at the story stone. Let continuity settle your questions and shape your methods.
• Stand beneath the birch. Let the DNA roots remind you that new learning grows from deep care.

Why it matters:
What will you discover, protect and create along your journey?

Credits

The piece was co-created with Knowledge Keepers, the artist, architects, scientists, academics, and led by Facilities Management.

Project Director Ahmed Waked, Senior Project Manager: Mohamed Zeid
Artist: Shalak Attack (Elisa Vivian Monreal). Painting assistant: Bruno Smoky. Knowledge Keepers: Anita Tenasco, Lionel Whiteduck, Rene Tenasco, Brenda Odjick.
Architect: Bryden Gibson Architects (Suzanne Gibson). Academic lead: Adam Shane, Erin Stitt-Cavanagh

Medium: Digital Illustration on Vinyl Print installation
Size: 23.84 ft wide x 22.53 ft tall
Location: Algonquin Centre for Science and Innovation Building A, Algonquin College, Ottawa, ON
Date: Feb – Sept 2025 (Concepts and reviews ran February–May 2025. Fabrication and installation August /Sept 2025)