A vision for a First Peoples House on the University of Victoria grounds is becoming reality.

There’s the obvious evidence of construction fences and neon tape, but the plan is also being molded in the workshops of three First Nations artists, creating pieces that will represent the spirit of indigenous people.

“It will be a home away from home for aboriginal students on campus,” said Martin Segger, director of the Maltwood Art Museum at UVic.

The facility is for more than the Coast and Strait Salish Nations. It’s for indigenous people from around the world who attend the university, explained Segger.

The $7 million project has been designed by Chipweyan architect Alfred Waugh, and will contain academic, administrative and ceremonial facilities.

There will be a classroom for 25 students, a kitchen, seminar room, big house/ceremonial room and an elders room.

Waugh has designed the main entryway with large cedar posts and a space to showcase the First Nations art being created.

The new building is slated to be finished by June 2009. For now, it looks like just the skeleton of a worksite.

Twenty minutes away, in Brentwood Bay, Tsartlip Nation carver Charles W. Elliot works on one of the two house posts he will carve for the university‘s new building.

Elliot estimates it will take around three months to carve and sand each post made from old growth, red cedar logs hailing from the Jordan River.

As Elliot carves, three to four frogs will take shape climbing each of the posts. They will crawl up from braided rope telling the tale of the Great Flood of Lau Wel New -- the area we know as Mt. Newton.

“In Coast Salish culture the (story of the) emerging of the frogs (from the flood waters) represents a new beginning,” said Elliot. “When the frogs sing in the springtime, it is the beginning of a new cycle.”

Elliot’s work will stand inside the house, which is entered through large, carved doors crafted by Squamish Nation carver Xwa-lack-tun, also known as Rick Harry. The doorway carvings include a thunderbird and a salmon on one side and a killer whale on the other.

Framing the walkway up to the carved door will be two welcoming posts depicting a traditional Coast Salish man and a woman holding a child.

These welcome posts are being created by Tsawout First Nation carver Doug Lafortune.

Segger said the three artists were selected from about 20 applicants who proposed ideas for the three pieces.

The three commissioned designs are by no means the only pieces of First Nations art that will be displayed in the house. A call for more art is expected before the end of this year.