On view until Sunday, January 5, 2020
The Museum of Vancouver is pleased to announce its newest feature exhibition There is Truth Here: Creativity and Resilience in Children’s Art from Indian Residential and Day Schools. Curated by Andrea Walsh, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Victoria, and originally displayed at the Legacy Art Gallery in Victoria, the exhibition has been adapted with additional works from the MOV collection. Sharon Fortney, Curator of Indigenous Collections and Engagement at MOV, facilitated bringing this exhibit to Vancouver.
There is Truth Here focuses on rare surviving artworks created by children who attended the Inkameep Day School (Okanagan), St Michael’s Indian Residential School (Alert Bay); the Alberni Indian Residential School (Vancouver Island) and Mackay Indian Residential School (Manitoba). The focus of the exhibition is not on the schools themselves, but upon witnessing the experiences of the survivors as conveyed through their childhood artworks – for some the only surviving material from their childhoods.
There is Truth Here brings a new line to bear on the role of art as part of children’s knowledge, identity, and experiences of Indian Residential and Day Schools. Through paintings, drawings, sewing, beading, drumming, singing, and drama produced by children and youth who attended schools in British Columbia and Manitoba the exhibition seeks to contribute in vital and new ways to dialogues and initiative about truth telling, reconciliation, and redress in Canada.
Sharon Fortney, Curator, Indigenous Collections and Engagement at Museum of Vancouver.
Dr. Andrea Walsh, Curator, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Victoria.
