🪶 Collaging from Past to Present (not about the history of collage)

Howdy! 🤠

In this project we learned about the many ways Canada has mistreated Indigenous People throughout history to the present. Our driving question for this project was:

How can art and text reflect both the history and our current place in time?

The collage I created for the final product does a wonderful job at answering

In my collage, the road represents the road through history to the present. From residential schools to current issues, such as the Wet’suwet’en Pipeline protests and Fairy Creek Old Growth logging. The current issues are shown through the falling tree and clear cut as well as the pipeline and oil spill. These also represent the resource extraction taking place on unceded Indigenous land that is leading to environmental destruction. The road also represents the highway of tears, where many Indigenous Women have gone missing (I also included a sign that is actually on the highway of tears). The RCMP truck symbolizes the government’s role in suppressing Indigenous People. The red hand prints and dress are symbolic of the MMIWG crisis.

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To start this project we wrote “I am from” poems about ourselves and what we are from (places, people, experiences, etc). Here’s mine:

❗️Trigger Warning ❗️

We then began reading “The Marrow Thieves” by Cherie Dimaline. The Marrow Thieves is a dystopian novel about the Indigenous People of North America who are being hunted for their bone marrow. The story is set in the future after a climate collapse and non-Indigenous people losing the ability to dream. 

While reading the book, we made “contributions” to reflect on what we’d read. The contributions I made varied from questions, to poems, to art pieces. These contributions enabled me to continue to develop my ability at the curricular competency “Analyzing: I can identify, analyze, and represent supportable conclusions having evaluated relevance, authenticity, and bias from a variety of sources.” You can check out my reading journal with contributions below:

I really enjoyed getting to read the novel, it was both interesting and had strong references to to history, as well as warnings for what could come in the future if we don’t mitigate climate change. After we finished the book, we wrote a response to the question “How does The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline reflect Canada presently and historically?” I’m really happy with what I wrote, check it out below:

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We then did a series of reflections on art and historical and current issues. I wrote about the Indian Act, the Wet’suwet’en Pipeline Protests, and Intergenerational Trauma. I learned a lot while writing these reflections, and I’m really proud of what I wrote, you can read them below:

Writing these reflections allowed me to show my ability to communicate my ideas through the competency “Communicating: I can express and reflect for communication by determining appropriate and effective forms for purpose, audience, and message.” 

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Next we learned a little bit about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). We then wrote a short reflection about how what we learned in the project affected our views on Canada, as well as what we personally can do to contribute to Truth and Reconciliation. Here’s what I wrote:

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Finally, we individually created collages to showcase our understanding of what we learned throughout the project. I originally wanted to create a mosaic of tiny bits of ripped up coloured paper, but decided it would be much to difficult and time consuming. I shifted my idea to create a mixed-media watercolour piece showing the same story as the original idea. Here’s my rough sketch:

And here’s my finished collage which you saw at the top of this post:

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Overall, I really enjoyed this project. I love reading, learning about Indigenous Peoples and the history surrounding them, and painting, all of which I got to do in this project!

Take a moment to consider what can YOU do to contribute to Truth and Reconciliation… Indigenous Peoples continue to face mistreatment, I encourage you to do some research and learn all that you can about the injustices and how you can be an ally to Indigenous Peoples. 

Thanks for reading!