Kanien'kehá:ka ice carver remembered at this year’s Winterlude

Ryan Hill was a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) sculptor from Six Nations of the Grand River who thought big; his ice carving Pegasus at the 2019 Winterlude exhibition in Ottawa measured nearly three metres tall.

Hill died of a heart attack last year at age 50 and he's set to be honoured at Winterlude with the return of the Ice-Carving Public Challenge, this year carrying his name.

"It just comes out when he's working on the world stage there in Ottawa with all the carvers," his sister Jacqueline Hill recalled.

"His thinking was very big."

His friends and family hope this year’s challenge in his honour inspires people to remember his work and learn the craft themselves. 

A carver in wood and stone, he first entered the ice-carving public challenge in 2013 and won. He went on to become part of the international ice-carving community.

Jacqueline Hill said her younger brother’s skills were nurtured by both of their parents.

“We would be out in the snow and he's the one who made all the tunnels in the snow,” she said.

“We would always be building some sort of little maze.”

She said their father made wooden lacrosse sticks and gave Ryan tools to start whittling as soon as he was old enough to handle them.

Corrine Hill, Ryan's widow, said she's honoured the challenge is commemorating her late husband's work and said she and Ryan's family will attend.

“He wasn't afraid to take risks in life ... and he wanted to be an inspiration to everybody,” she said.

Chris Dainty, president of the Canadian Ice Carvers Society of Canada (CICS), was Ryan’s sculpting partner for many years. Dainty said Winterlude was where Ryan got his start in the public challenge and met other ice carvers from around the world, a small tight-knit community where he fit right in.

What made Ryan a great ice carver, he said, was his background in stone and wood carving. Dainty said Ryan’s cultural knowledge was enriching for the members of the CICS.