Hello readers, and welcome back to the blog.

Today’s post is about the recent project we’ve been working on in PLP 10. It’s called Lies and Incongruences, and is about First Nations in Canada.  The driving question in this project was: “How can art and text reflect both the history and our current place in time?” It can do this by demonstrating the realities and truths about our society. Also, we can connect to other past events and compare and contrast our ideas. The final product for this project was a art collage, digital or physical that represented the idea of truth and reconciliation. 

For keystone 1, we were tasked with reading “the Marrow Thieves”, by Cherie Dimaline. This book is a dystopian future where all Indians are refugees from the white people. It is directly tied to the residential schools of Canada’s past. Along with keeping up with our reading, we had to do a weekly journal that contained our thoughts and ideas on the book. We also did “contributions” where we created something that embellished the theme of the past chapters. 

 Near the end of the project, we did a full reflection on the book. Here’s a link to mine: Reading Journal

In keystone 2, we began to connect art and test with one another. There were 3 parts to this milestone, History and art, Contemporary issues and art, and civil dispute and art. For each of these assignments, we had to research a topic that interested us, then create a reflection. 

(Here’s a link to each of my reflections)

Outside of the classroom, we did the “blanket activity”. The blanket exercise is a activity that teaches about colonization in Canada. The program was created in response to the 1996 report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and is used as a teaching tool across Canada. This activity really opened my eyes and I made many connections.

It took lots of critique and revision to complete my pieces, it was quite the grind. But it was all worth it in the end, cause I had created quality, sophisticated work. 

Then it was time to craft our final art collage……

I chose to do mine as a physical piece of art. I based mine off the place I live, the Indian arm or “Say Nuth Khaw-yum”. Indian arm used to be a hunting ground for First Nations people many years ago, and holds deep roots in their culture.

For my draft, I cut out my poem from earlier in the project into magazine letters. I then put them on an image of the arm.

That was the first layer, I then layered a duplicate image with First Nations art on top:

This art will be part of our PLP spring exhibition, an event where we present our learning to friends and family. I can’t wait!

In summation, this project was interesting and I learned lots about Canada’s dark past. Specifically in the blanket activity I heard some shocking facts about our government and the way we treat First Nations. I actually enjoyed the reading and the plot was really interesting, it was unlike most school novels that we’ve read in the past. As for my art, I’m proud of it, and I’m hyped to show it off during the exhibition!

Thanks for reading!