Art created by Indian residential and day school students to be returned
CBC News | Posted: May 18, 2019 11:00 AM | Last Updated: May 18, 2019
Project led by Laurentian University professor received funding from federal government
Mary Pheasant doesn't remember painting the picture.
But the colours and shapes she put on paper when she was 12 years old in the late 1960s reminds the Wikwemikong woman of the art she still makes today.
It is one of 200 works of art made by the former students of Indian day and residential schools that have recently been unearthed.
"I think it's good to know that people will understand we are timeless," says Pheasant, who painted the picture during a summer art camp for Manitoulin Island youngsters.
"We are a timeless people. Our culture is our being. You can never take it away from us or trample it and it's in us regardless."
Laurentian University professor Celeste Pedri-Spade recently received federal funding for a project that aims to return the paintings and photographs to the former students that created them.
"In order to move forward, we need that history directly in front of us, guiding the way," she says.
Pedri-Spade will speak with former students, their communities, and cultural organziations to figure out how to distribute and house these artworks.
One of them was created by Martin Bayer, who went to Indian day school on Manitoulin Island and is now a Sudbury lawyer.
"I think it's going to generate interest. I think people will have more questions, not just about the art, but more importantly, the experiences of going to the Indian Day Schools," he says.
"It took me back to that time at the Indian Day School, which wasn't always a good experience. I remember always being hungry and all sorts of other things."
Science and Sport Minister Kirsty Duncan was in Sudbury this week to announce that this project will be one of 157 to share $38 million from the New Frontiers and Research Fund.