Photo by Denis Bouvier | denisbouvier.com
The construction beneath the photo-mural at the Georgia and Granville Canada Line Station is a messy, complex and many-layered project which will mark the new entrance to Nordstrom’s fashion retail store.
The photo-mural depicted is part of many art works honouring and celebrating the City of Vancouver’s Year of Reconciliation which acknowledges “the negative cultural impacts and stereotypes that resulted from Canada’s residential school system.” Part of the City’s official proclamation states: “From the 1870’s through until 1996, (Canadian) governments removed more than 150,000 Aboriginal children from their families. These children suffered cultural alienation and severe physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Recent research documents state that more than 3,000 Aboriginal children died while in custody of the government in residential schools.”
The City’s Year of Reconciliation is in partnership with Reconciliation Canada, inspired by Chief Robert Joseph, Gwawaenuk Elder from Port McNeil, BC. Its purpose is to build relationships between Aboriginal Peoples and all Canadians on a foundation of openness, dignity, understanding and hope. Part of their focus is to throw light on the residential school experience.
Although the City’s participation is drawing to a close, it is hoped that artistic works like the one above have at least partially achieved the aim of Reconciliation Canada. Like the construction below the mural, the process is messy, complex and many-layered.
The photo-mural Her Story is by Vancouver artist Krista Belle Stewart who grew up as a member of the Okanagan Nation’s Upper Nicola Band. The mural is based on a production still from the 1967 CBC documentary, Seraphine: Her Own Story. It’s about the artist’s mother, the first Aboriginal public health nurse in BC. There was an accompanying video, based in part on footage from the documentary, detailing her mother’s journey from residential school to university and into the city. Stewart’s work explores Aboriginal identity by creating links between the past and present to bring awareness to the implications of misrepresentation, stereotypes and racism.
Sometimes it’s difficult for non-Aboriginal people to comprehend the issues facing Aboriginal Peoples. In BC, major European settlements didn’t begin until the mid-1850’s. That’s only about 160 years ago. It’s estimated that Aboriginal people occupied this area for at least 10,000 years. Try to imagine that your land was essentially levelled: taken away, changed, built upon and you were herded onto an area a small fraction of what you had before severely limiting your access to making a living: hunting, fishing, trading, etc. Also restricted were necessary cultural exchanges between the many Aboriginal nations. Add to this your children forcibly taken away to residential schools where they were punished for speaking their own language or practising other aspects of their culture.
Once I had the privilege to meet an Aboriginal elder and his wife while visiting one of BC’s Gulf Islands. While overlooking the sea, they just casually pointed out that over there was an example of how they practised aquaculture. In that area, the ______ family fished. Nearby, the ______ family lived. Across the bay was the home of the ______ family. They knew the names and all about the families as if they were still present. I experienced in a deeply felt sense that I was on someone else’s property, that in no sense did this “belong” to me. I felt their stewardship of the land going back for generations, and in some small way was able to appreciate all that was lost and the need for reconciliation.
