As promised, here is the continuation of Walking Together, a guest post by Lorrie Gallant, Education Program Coordinator at Woodland Cultural Centre, Brantford Ontario
Two years later I submitted a grant application to Canada Council for the Arts to do the project again. I was successful and I began the project at Pauline Johnson Collegiate and Vocational School in Brantford. I worked with the Aboriginal Education Counsellor who selected 11 students to take part in the project.
These students participated in workshops on the history of residential schools in Canada, information gathering, interview skills, the art of digital photography to tell a story and the creative expression of encaustic art.Again the goal of this intergenerational community arts project was to remind these youth of an important part of their First Nations history and to remind Canada that this is their history as well.This time there were only 2 students to each survivor on their tour. They had an opportunity to have a conversation with them. These tours and interviews were much more intimate. Some of the students quotes were: “Learn from our survivors and make sure it never happens again;” “I felt an overwhelming sadness as if I could feel their pain;” “Every year he waited and nobody came;” “So much abuse, so many tears.” I knew they got it, they understood what had happen in this place and I knew their lives would be changed because of it. The students worked over a period of several weeks creating their art piece using many, many layers of wax. They wrote short articles that I would use to accompany their images within an exhibition book.
During the first project at the Proclamation of Truth and Reconciliation in Toronto I meet the Economic Development and Cultural Services Administrator for the City of Toronto and she was extremely impressed with the work. She asked if I did the project again that she would love for the works to be exhibited at one of Toronto museums.When I began the project at Pauline Johnson School I contacted her and we began meetings with the curator of Mackenzie House Museum in Toronto to arrange for the completed works to be on exhibition. This brought survivors and students with their families to Toronto for an opening.
This exposure lead me to being asked by the curator to apply to the Nuit Blanche Art Fesitival to show the youths photography from the project. With the assistance of Serene Porter the photography workshop facilitator for the project together her and I created a slideshow documentary. I submitted an application to the festival. It was successful and on Saturday night of October 3rd 2015 until the morning of the next day 1,380 people came out to see the images, meet the young artists and to hear about the residential school. These youth learned what it meant to be a voice, to use their creative abilities to tell a story and reveal the truth. This was a very empowering experience for them and for me.
Walking side by side with survivors, the students of Hagersville and Pauline Johnson Secondary Schools spent time discovering the heartbreaking legacy these survivors have carried their whole lives. The students were inspired by their courage and gained a new appreciation of their own freedom to speak their language, celebrate their culture and enjoy life. The pain of residential school has passed through many generations and the healing comes slowly. Woodland Cultural Centre has become a place to remind us of that painful past and at the same time celebrate a beautiful culturally rich way of life. I’m thankful to the First Nation artists who helped give the students a voice to those that needed to be heard, honoured the survivors and remembered those little children that never made it home. I’m grateful for the youth who respectfully walked with the survivors and cared about the message their art would communicate. And I will be forever humbled by the survivors of residential school that showed us the strength of spirit to let something shine thru all the brokenness and bring to light the pain and loss that came to them but was never asked for, who now can celebrate their cultural inheritance.
This is my definition of a Survivor.
By Lorrie Gallant