How a day for truth and reconciliation inspired these Indigenous artists

How a day for truth and reconciliation inspired these Indigenous artists

CBC Saskatchewan reached out to Indigenous artists across the province to commission original works for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Thursday — asking them to create something based on whatever the day inspired in them.

The day, which is being marked as a federal statutory holiday for the first time this year, is intended to recognize the painful legacy and ongoing impacts of the residential school system, and to honour survivors and the children who died while attending the schools.

Here is what the artists created, and what the pieces mean to them in their own words.

The responses have been edited for length and clarity.

"Being an Indigenous person, you often get invited to various committees, etc., and one of the committees was wanting to do something towards recognizing truth and reconciliation … and there was somebody at the table who had brought an idea that really had nothing to do with reconciliation, it had nothing to do with Indigenous people whatsoever.… And when I pointed that out ... their response was, 'Oh, just stick some feathers on it.' "

"I'm a residential school survivor. I grew up in the Prince Albert Indian Student Residence. I was there from 1984 to 1989. I recently said that my generation is often the one that's kind of forgotten when it comes to residential school survivors because when they talk about reconciliation and the day, they're always showing black and white photographs from the '50s and '60s."

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