Completed just as school finished for the summer, a new Indigenous mural now decorates the halls of Lake City Secondary Columneetza campus. Local artist Sarah Sigurdson led nearly 30 students in the collaborative process of designing and then painting the new mural at the school.
Counsellors Tara Burtenshaw and Jon Harding at the Columneetza campus, asked her to come and work with a group of mostly Indigenous Grades 7-9 students to help replace an older mural which was determined to not reflect the local Indigenous population and culture. The majority of the students were Indigenous, but some asked to be involved as allies who wanted to learn more about local Indigenous students and culture.
While she was willing to help create the new mural, she told them the cultural part would need more input.
“My expertise is the painting part and helping people make connections to a subject,” explained Sigurdson, but the cultural part would be from others.
So she reached out to bring in three guest speakers to help provide some inspiration for the students to draw from based on connections she made doing some previous cultural burning painting and art workshops in the area.
Cindy Charleyboy spoke to the students about songs, traditions and stories. Janet Smith spoke to the students about her own healing journey recovering from personal struggles and how traditional medicine helped her.
Peter Holub, with the Ministry of Forests, spoke about the work he has been doing around ecosystem restoration and cultural burning with various communities.
There were also field trips, including visiting the Cariboo Fire Centre and touring an air tanker, meeting with a fire keeper, a biologist, WLFN Cultural Coordinator David Archie and others.
“It was really cool to see so many people from our community willing to share their passions with the kids.”
Some students participated in the field trip but did not paint the actual mural.
Will Gauley, Jayde Hill, Kobe Johnson, Maria Baptiste, Kaleb Oliver, Taylor Rennie, Sienna Smith, Kacey Huffman, Michaela Ketter, Dean Setah, Blake Lambe, Jez Billlyboy, Blaire Camille, Shalene Witte, Garreth Scrooby, Kimora Price, Mya John-Stilas, Martina Henry-Wallace, James Wilker, Henry Beaton, Kaitlyn Brown, Jude Jackson, Arianna Norquay, Breanna Sellars, Tyson Michel, Katharine Archie, Tristan Summers, Isabell McMath all helped with the mural. Austin Kemball, Emily-Jane Bruneau, Harveer Poonie, Chantel Johnny, Autumn Salt, Kaleb Paulson, Sukhbir Binning, Kenny Gladue, Carver Stolz, and Sara Forseille all participated in the field trip portion of the project.
Students took all of their inspiration and created individual designs, which were eventually placed on the wall in black and white to begin with.
Sigurdson then asked the students which parts they would want people to notice first and added colour to those areas.
“There’s colour in the song, there’s colour in the elders … it was really cool how it came out,” said Sigurdson.
She spoke animatedly about how the students eagerly took it all in and then “made those connections within themselves and then painted something on the wall.”
Everyone took away something different, said Sigurdson, a few of the students fell in love with painting and have been coming to Cariboo Art Beat open studio hours, some were inspired to sign up with the Junior Initial Attack program and a student in a wheelchair was carried into the cockpit of the airplane and sat in the pilot’s seat, which was a unique opportunity.
“They learned a lot but they also taught each other a lot,” she said, with each student contributing their own knowledge of their culture.
Sigurdson admitted she probably took away more than some students did.
“We just paint and talk about our lives.”
The mural’s theme depicts a woman singing the story of the land, she explained. Elders are at the centre high point, showing the importance of their knowledge, and many stories are woven throughout the entire mural.
“I loved watching it come together.”
While Sigurdson did the project as a volunteer, the paints and supplies were purchased by the counsellors and the field trip was funded by the Ministry of Forests.
Sigurdson considers her volunteer time payback for future bake sales.
“My kids will all go there and I don’t bake,” joked Sigurdson.
Read more: Williams Lake’s Station House Gallery hosts group art show until Feb. 26
ruth.lloyd@wltribune.com
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