These two statues were/are arguably the best-known works of public art in Manitoba. Though created slightly over a decade apart, both statues share several distinctive features. Both are oversized figurative works designed to impress. Both are highly gendered representations of bodies – one depicting the 19th century's most prominent individual, a sixty-something woman, dressed in elaborate garb, siting in frozen majesty. The other an idealized image of a fully naked athletic male youth, captured mid-stride. Yet, over the last three decades one of these statues became a contentious focus of protest – particularly in terms Indigenous relations with the Crown and the Canadian Government – while the other has become a focus for artistic reinterpretation particularly by queer and indigenous artists.