Orillia students learn the art of Truth and Reconciliation

Local elementary school students took part in the Call 83 Art Project on Friday in the Ogimaa Miskwaaki Gallery at St. Paul’s Centre.

Mary Lou Meiers, the original curator for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action 83 images found in the Ogimaa Miskwaaki Gallery, says the experience was intended to inspire the students. It did so through Indigenous and non-Indigenous artwork that was produced for the Call to Action 83 Conversation Through Art.

“They choose one of the pieces of art that they find most interesting,” Meiers explained. “They then engage in an imagination exercise where they become a part of that work, move around in that work, and then they have a conversation with that work.”

Through being inspired by the art, the 13 students who participated from Lions Oval and Regent Park public schools created their own pieces.

“It allows them to imagine an action, feeling, or change of heart that will inform them they’re going forward in a good way to add to Simcoe County reconciliation through the artwork of the artists,” Meiers said. “Education got us into the mess, and education, with our imaginations, will get us out of this mess.”

She hopes students took away an appreciation for art and some excitement from their experience.

“Within each of us, we have an imagination and creativity,” she said. “That allows us to create beauty in art or any other form that’s our gift, talent, or medicine from birth that the Creator gave us.”

Selema Bauman, a Grade 8 Regent Park student, enjoyed making art from pastels.

“I like how we got to choose a painting to incorporate from to make something new,” she said. “I’ve learned that it’s important to let yourself do what you want.”

Bauman was nervous coming into the art project because she doesn’t often make art.

“It’s actually been really fun,” she said. “It’s shown me how to let myself go and draw what I feel.”

Sloan Lang, a Grade 7 Indigenous student at Lions Oval, says she never took the time to look at art in an in-depth way before Friday’s experience.

“It was really good to feel the paintings and observe them,” she said. “I could feel what maybe the artist was feeling while painting it, and I connected on that level with the creation that was made.”

She learned to be more observant and present, and she hopes the exercise helped her non-Indigenous classmates better understand Indigenous culture.

Lisa Ligers, instructional facilitator of Indigenous education with the Simcoe County District School Board, says the project is a positive way for students to engage in reconciliation.

“Truth and Reconciliation is not meant to be a document that we just reference; we want to make it something that is put into action,” she said.

Every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., the Ogimaa Miskwaaki Gallery is open to the public at no cost.

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