Project of Heart @ WAG-Qaumajuq is an opportunity for Gallery visitors to think about the TRC’s Calls to Action and recognize the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30. This art display invites visitors to purchase a tile by donation to share an artistic response to or interpretation of reconciliation, as well as the name of a Survivor or Residential School that the visitor wants to acknowledge.
The art display will be cleansed with medicine via smudging regularly throughout the month.
Project of Heart examines the history and legacy of Indian Residential Schools in Canada and seeks the truth about that history through acknowledgement of the extent of loss to former students, their families, and communities. The Project also commemorates the lives of the thousands of Indigenous children who died because of the residential school experience and calls Canadians to action, through social justice endeavours, to change our present and future history collectively. Its purpose is to:
- Examine the history and legacy of Residential Schools in Canada and to seek the truth about that history, leading to the acknowledgement of the extent of loss to former students, their families and communities
- Commemorate the lives of the thousands of Indigenous children who died as a result of the residential school experience
- Call Canadians to action, through social justice endeavours, to change our present and future history collectively
How to Participate
Purchase a tile at WAG-Qaumajuq front desk (pay what you can – suggested donation $5). All profits will be donated to Sunshine House.
Tiles will be displayed in Eckhardt Hall for the month of September.
Instructions
- Investigate: Inquire about the history and legacy of the Indian Residential School system in Canada. Choose a former Residential School that was located near to where you live and learn about that school (resources provided).
- Learn: Learn about the Nation(s) whose land the Residential School stood on. What can we learn from them about the land, their ways of life, the contributions of their nations and people?
- Create:
- Print the name of the Residential School on the back of the tile
- Colour the edges of the tile with black marker to create a memorial for a child who died in Residential School or a choose a different colour to honour a School Survivor
- Decorate the front of the tile with an image or words that represents something in your lived experience that could empathize with the experiences of the Indigenous people affected by the Residential School system.
- Return: Bring your completed tile to the Front Desk
- Visit: Come back to WAG-Qaumajuq throughout the month of September to see the ever-growing display of tiles
- Think: What did you know before participating in Project of Heart? What have you learned?
To plan your visit, check out wag.ca/visit.
