Mural bridges gaps between aboriginal, non-aboriginal students

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This article was published 18/05/2011 (5444 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

To the unassuming, they’re standard forest creatures: an eagle, sabe, wolf, turtle, buffalo, beat and eagle splayed about the wall.

But beneath the splashes and brush strokes of paint of John Taylor Collegiate’s newest mural lies a culture on the precipice of being forgotten, even by the school’s slowly increasing aboriginal population.     

“It’s surprising, even aboriginal students don’t know a lot about their culture, it’s not passed on,” said Cheri Stroppa, the native studies teacher at John Taylor, and a driving force behind the creation of the mural.

“It’s really for all students.”

The animals represent the seven sacred teachings of the Ojibwa people: love (eagle), honesty (sable), humility (wolf), truth (turtle), respect (buffalo), courage (bear), and wisdom (beaver).

West End resident and artist Victoria Elaine McIntosh spent 40 hours creating the nine-by-25-foot mural in the school’s cafeteria.

The 52-year-old Ojibwa artist called the mural, her first in Manitoba, a reintroduction to Ojibwa culture and belief.

“As an artist, that’s the best way I can express myself,” she said. “I love art. I can talk and talk and talk about what our culture is about, but I want people to see what I see.”

The mural weaves itself into the school’s native studies course, introduced last year, Stroppa said.

The course, which has a mix of 20 aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, teaches the culture, language and the arts of the different aboriginal groups within Canada, she said. Artists regularly come in to teach students how to craft dreamcatchers, and students have gone to powwow and sweat lodge ceremonies.

“We didn’t offer any kind of courses or groups for aboriginal students, so our goal was to make aboriginal students feel comfortable and educate non-aboriginal students,” Stroppa said.

“All students can grow and learn from the mural.”

About 15% of the school’s population is now aboriginal, principal Scott Lockhart said. The school has been looking for new methods to better celebrate that fact.

“We have a tremendous environment at our school. We try to celebrate diversity and cultures throughout the entire year. The mural is just one of those methods,” he said.

The mural, like her art, is another step in the recovery process as a residential school survivor, McIntosh said.

“Connecting with young people by going into schools and giving them this, I’m showing them who we were as a people and what I remember before I went to a residential school,” she said.

“They’re giving me back my youth.”

matt.preprost@canstarnews.com