MINERS’ SCULPTURE


On an outcrop of bedrock in front of the Sir Harry Oakes Chateau at the entrance to town, Kirkland Lake.

The figures demonstrate the skill and strength of hard rock miners. Blocks of local black granite suggest a head frame, a mine shaft, tunnels and underground levels at which miners work. The gold colour of the work links the miners’ lives with the resources they mined -- gold. Every year on 28 April the sculpture is a rallying point for the Day of Mourning for workers killed in the workplace. It has been placed in front of the Sir Harry Oakes Chateau, reminding all that Harry Oakes was one of the beneficiaries of the miners’ labour – a multimillionaire who took himself to the Bermudas to escape taxes.

The artists Rob Moir and Sally Lawrence took many trips underground to capture the specifics of the mens labour and in that were able to express the universality of miners’ life everywhere. The memorial was funded by Steelworkers Local 4584 and other supporters.