High school students and teachers filed their way into the Founder’s Hall on the grounds of Queen Mararget’s School on June 15 for the last assembly of the year.
There was a palpable sense of excitement, partly because it’s almost the end of the school year, but also because of what was placed at the front of the room.
Among the crowd was Quw’utsun artist Shawn Johnny, who was there to unveil a new mural that he had been working on since March alongside students of the Grade 12 Contemporary Indigenous Studies class.
According to Johnny, the idea behind the project was to bring the school together and honour truth and reconciliation.
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“An art piece can bring us together and if we can work together and show up for one another and care for one another, that’s the best medicine that we all can give,” he said.
The mural consists of a rising sun made up of the handprints of students from the entire school, representing the “the warm land” of Quw’utsun. It also features the Queen Margaret’s School crown-shaped logo, which contains artwork depicting the story of S-hwu-hwa’us and Qul-lhanumutsun (thunderbird and killer whale) to represent the Quw’utsun people.
Johnny unveiled the art and received a plaque from the school matching the one that will be mounted alongside the mural. He was joined by his grand-uncle Qwiahwultuhw (Robert George) who opened the ceremony with drumming and singing.
“I’m just so grateful to be here today,” Johnny said as he addressed the crowd. “I’m grateful to help create this art piece for the school and truth and reconciliation as a way for us to come together as a people.”
Bringing people together through learning and sharing
Tim Sailor teaches the Contemporary Indigenous Studies class at the school and said he and his class wanted to do something meaningful for reconciliation that would allow the broader school community to participate.
To Sailor, the project is about increasing the visibility of Indigenous art and bringing the community together. He said the importance of the unveiling ceremony happening during National Indigenous History Month was not lost on him.
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“This is just another step in the ever-going process of art and culture that Indigenous people have been stewarding for so long. To have that happen in [National Indigenous History Month] is a small part of the bigger picture that we’re all trying to create together,” he said.
Over the course of four months, Johnny met with Sailor’s class where he shared stories of how his life was affected by colonization.
“That’s when it really makes an impact and it really gets real when you can see the impact that colonization has had on someone. That’s a lot more real than just learning about it from a textbook,” Sailor said.
Through this work, Sailor said his students saw how important relationship building is to the reconciliation process.
“They really got to see the value of creating relationships and how reconciliation is really about fostering individual connections,” he said. “We can talk about it as this big thing the governments, or the town, needs to do but ultimately it comes down to people creating those connections.”
Art for a divided community
Johnny said much of his art focuses on healing the community by bridging gaps that were left by colonization.
“Art is a tool for me to carry on in my own way, to break that divide here in Cowichan, to bring us together as a community, as one community,” he said.
That divide is something Johnny’s grand uncle Qwiahwultuhw said he remembers very vividly as a boy growing up around Duncan under colonial laws.
“Today we can walk around freely. We can come to the school today, freely. Before, it wasn’t allowed for us to be here or anywhere back then,” he said.
He pointed up to the provincial flag hanging above the crowd in the gymnasium and noted that the sun on the flag is at the bottom, signifying submission to the crown.
In contrast, he said Johnny’s mural places all of the elements equally with the sun, representing the friendships actively being developed in the school and the broader community.
“That’s one of the big changes that I see happening in our communities. It’s so vital and important to that peace. Those are the two pillars that will bring equality to our communities,” Qwiahwultuhw said.
“Many hands touched this,” Johnny said as he stood next to the finished mural. “We didn’t see a divide when we were working on this. We just saw each other as people. And that’s what we must carry on doing today: to care, love and support one another.”
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