Zoey Duncan
It’s not unusual to see wildlife while out fishing, but when Cecilia Kabatay spotted a bright white tail and feet poking out of the mud last week, she was instantly intrigued.
She and a nearby fisherman guessed what the creature might be before she gently prodded the animal with a stick, fully expecting it would get up and run away.
That’s when Kabatay realized she had unearthed a figurine on the shore about two kilometres from the Seine River Bridge.
She lugged the 16.5-pound sculpture from under the mud, roots and leaves it had been buried under.
“Since then, I’ve just been amazed,” Kabatay said. “I’ve been fishing here a hundred times before.”
Upon closer inspection, the figurine appears to be a quartz polar bear. Though it was highly polished previously, it’s now pitted and rough in some spots.
After a week or so with the bear in her possession, Kabatay brought it to the museum here to try to learn more about it.
“Today [the sculpture] seemed to give me the message, ‘Go to the museum, go to the museum,’” Kabatay said Thursday.
The sculpted bear is posed looking backwards over its shoulder with one foot raised.
“It’s pretty clear it’s an artist who did this,” said museum curator Sherry George. “It’s not something that you or I could probably do. Gorgeous piece of work.”
Kabatay noted that quartz is often associated with healing, positivity and increased energy.
“It feels special,” Kabatay said. “Since I got it… some little things, good things happened.”
With the help of the museum, Kabatay is hoping to learn more about the figurine and the artist who created it. George is going to pass along photos of the bear to other museum contacts, she said.
“See what they know of something like this, who would be doing this kind of work, maybe,” she said. “Maybe there’s somebody locally that does that sort of thing, or [did it] in the past. I don’t know. We’ll see what kind of response we get.”
Anyone with more information is encouraged to contact Sherry George at the museum at 274-7891.
