Celebrating Indigenous culture, creativity, and community is the focus of new banners that adorn James Street in downtown Wallaceburg.
To help honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation this month, the Downtown Wallaceburg BIA commissioned four Indigenous artists to create original pieces that have been professionally printed on banners and proudly displayed.
Harmony Blackbird, Abee Naudee-Southgate, John Williams and Gretchen Gamble created six artworks that will be seen lining James Street throughout the month.
Blackbird a Walpole Island resident and third-generation residential school survivor, said the theme of her artwork is ‘We Are Still Here.’
“I had to sit with my feelings. What does Truth and Reconciliation mean to me? What does it mean to my family? And that’s kind of where I developed the piece of ‘We Are Still Here,'” she said. “Despite colonization, the efforts to try and erase who we are as Anishinaabe people, we’re still here. Our traditions are still here. Our language is still here.”
Blackbird’s banner depicts a woman, representing Mother Earth, who is surrounded by the sun and the stars, which represent the First Nations ancestors and the children who did not survive the residential school system.
“[Mother Earth] is the reason why we’re still here. She carries all those teachings, all of that knowledge with the water, the land, [and] the animals,” she said.
The downtown banners and their installation were paid for through councillors Aaron Hall and Amy Finn’s portions of the Hydro One Council Ward Funding program.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30 honours survivors of residential schools and the children who never returned home, as well as their families and communities.