Eugene weekly., August 13, 2015, Page 7, Image 7

AMY RAY OF INDIGO
GIRLS EXAMINES THE
NATIVE DESIGN OF
THE MEMORIAL PLAY
STRUCTURE
CORVALLIS PLAY AREA
MEMORIALIZES YOUNG BOY,
NATIVE PEOPLES
Shawala Point at Riverfront Commemorative Park in
Corvallis has a new play structure, one that memorializes the
life of a young boy and honors the traditions of local indig-
enous people.
The 50 or so people who came to the Aug. 4 dedication
joined Nigel Rose Weber’s parents to watch as a Grand Ronde
canoe family paddled up to Shawala Point on the hot August
afternoon. Grand Ronde tribal members later drummed and
sang. Native American activist and writer Winona LaDuke
participated in the dedication, as did singer-songwriter Amy
Ray.
The structure is in memory of 7-year-old Nigel, who died
unexpectedly April 4, 2014, after staying home from school
for an illness.
Nigel’s mother, Trish Weber, said the concrete sculpture
is designed and painted to look like a traditional wood bowl
carved by the Kalapuya, and it is meant to be climbed on
by children. The structure was planned in conjunction with
the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. Tribal mem-
bers participated in the unveiling, as did Corvallis Mayor Biff
Traber. Weber and her husband, Nigel’s father Mark Rose,
fundraised, spent $30,000 and worked with the city of Cor-
vallis to build the play area.
Weber is an activist who fights extreme energy projects,
and she has forged alliances with native tribes in doing that
work. She has joined with LaDuke in the battle to stop tar
sands pipelines. LaDuke said the day after the dedication she
would be taking Weber to ride horses along the proposed En-
PHOTO CREDIT: CAMILLA MORTENSEN
bridge pipeline routes in the Midwest, because she said of
the climate change-causing oil project, “It’s hot enough here
already.”
LaDuke said of the efforts to save the Earth, and of Nigel
and others that have passed, “When I see him and the others,
I want to shake their hands and say, ‘I did the best I could.’”
Weber spoke next of her son. She said, “We lost our son.
He was there. And then he wasn’t.”
As kids played in the skate park behind her, she contin-
ued, “He was beautiful and funny and smart … and he died
and that’s not right.” Weber shared memories of Nigel from
his love of cooking and video gaming to his skills on the wa-
ter — part of the heartbreak of the last 16 months, she said,
was not seeing him to grow up to be a “river rat.”
Weber also spoke of a family camping trip under a full
moon and said she takes a moment during the full moon each
month to think of her son.
Weber’s friend Amy Ray, who is known both for her solo
career and for her work as a member of the folk duo Indigo
Girls, then sang the Indigo Girls song “Share the Moon,” start-
ing off: “I can go one day without calling/ Two days without
bawling/ Three days without missing/ But a lifetime of no kiss-
ing you/ Is something that I just can’t do/ I wish I could be there
to share the moon.”
Weber’s parting words to the small crowd were first to quote
Hamlet, pointing out that Shakespeare too knew the grief of los-
ing a young son, and then quoting Mickey Hart at the Grateful
Dead’s recent final concert, “I’ll leave you with this: Please, be
kind.”
The play structure can be found at the south end of River-
front Commemorative Park, near the Corvallis Skate Park.
LaDuke later fell with her horse, was hospitalized and could
not finish the ride; however, Weber was able to continue her
ride horseback along the pipeline route. — Camilla Mortensen
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