Graham Mastersmith is the Senior Visual Arts and Photography Teacher at All Saints Catholic High School in Kanata, and for the second year in a row his art students have teamed with Project of Heart — this time by remembering the students from Fort Smith IRS (Breyant Hall) in Nunavut, Chesterfield Inlet IRS in the North West Territories, and the Covenant of Holy Angels IRS in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta.

Graham’s students put their hearts and spirits into decorating tiles in the most innovative and creative ways. Archival photos of children and text from various historical documents were minimized and placed on the tiles, bringing to life the memories from the past.

Students at All Saints Catholic were also living the reality of incursions of development on the natural environment and sacred lands of the Algonquin people. The South March Highlands and Beaver Pond are treasured places for many of the students at All Saints. They allied themselves with the resistance shown by Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists to stop the decimation of these sanctuaries of biodiversity.

Below is Mastersmith’s letter to the The Nature Conservancy of Canada in support of the preservation of Beaver Pond and the South March Highlands in Kanata: Continue reading →

Teacher Tanya Rafuse’s Grade 12 ‘Challenge and Change’ students chose to commemorate the deaths of the children at the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School in Manitoba. Students applied not only their talent, but their hearts and spirits as they created tiny masterpieces — painted tiles that will one day be offered to former students who were victimized by that IRS. Elder and Indian Residential School survivor, Terry McKay, spoke bluntly about the inter-generational trauma resulting from the Residential school experience that has affected so many communities, yet he also gave voice to the beauty of his people, the contributions to Canada that they made and are making, and the land that he still calls “home” (coastal British Columbia).

Most of Ms. Rafuse’s students chose social justice actions that involved signing petitions and/or writing letters to members of parliament regarding human rights issues: access to clean drinking water, Shannen’s Dream (safe, clean, and comfortable schools), and missing and/or murdered Indigenous women.

Meegwetch to Tanya for a job really well done!

Aboriginal students who lost their lives while attending the Alexandra Industrial School for Girls in Toronto are not lost to memory any longer, thanks to the efforts of Toronto District School Board Native Studies teacher Amanda Conkie.

Conkie was determined to insure that her students were made aware of the IRS history in  their own city. Alexandra Industrial School had such poor records kept, that the Department of Indian Affairs doesn’t even know what year the school closed its doors!

A huge ‘meegwetch’ goes out to Amanda, who worked through the Project of Heart module until its conclusion. Elder and Indian Residential School survivor Cliff Standingready was invited to the school to conduct the ceremony to cleanse the 316 tiles, and insure that the memory of these girls was not lost to time.

Well done students of Sir Robert L. Borden B.T. I. – and Amanda Conkie!

Gabriel Dumont Institute visual arts instructor Christina Johns of the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program (SUNTEP) had her pre-service teachers complete the tile decoration component of the POH module during the fall term of 2008.

The SUNTEP students brought extremely compelling imagery to the exercise which commemorated the students who died at the Lebret Indian Residential School at Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan. Click on the adjacent photo to see more examples of her class’s work.

Russell Fayant of the SUNTEP program and Christina herself have also responded through verse to the ongoing colonial project of cultural extinction, as experienced by their Métis community. Christina’s poem can be read here and Russell’s here.

The following report was submitted by Warren McBride, an educator from Ottawa:

We are a family of four, including two children aged 14 and 12, and in August 2008 we set out from Ottawa on a year-long round-the-world back packing adventure.  Before leaving, we decided to participate in Project of Heart.  We received the wooden tiles and agreed to keep in contact with the Project of Heart team in Ottawa.

POH would send us, via email, several names of children who had died while attending Indian Residential Schools in Canada and we would choose an appropriate location in the world to dedicate and decorate these blocks in those children’s memory. Continue reading →

..mainstream Canadians wouldn’t profess such ignorance”

So says Winnipeg educator Angela Busch in this special report filed earlier this week by CBC reporter Karen Paul for the Stolen Children series on Radio One; it’s an interview with students from Project of Heart partner school Southeast Collegiate in Winnipeg and was recorded with teacher Angela’s history class.

The audio was originally aired on World Report on Sunday, June 8.

 

 Southeast Collegiate on World Report: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Click photo for a ten-image slideshow of finished tiles as decorated by students at Elizabeth Wyn Wood school in Ottawa.