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 Archival photos of children and text from various historical documents were minimized and placed on the tiles, bringing to life the memories from the past.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





