A group of students from Glenbow Elementary School will be the youngest facilitators gracing the stage at the final Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) event.
The children from the school’s Roots and Wings program will be travelling to Edmonton March 27 to lead a workshop on their award-winning project: Warrior Paint: Painting to Fight Hunger. The gathering, which is set to run at Edmonton’s Shaw Conference Centre from March 27-30, aims to teach students about the experiences and impacts associated with residential schools.
“The students are so excited their artwork is inspiring others to create healing pieces of art,” said Sherri Rinkel Mackay, a teacher who oversees Glenbow’s Roots and Wings program.
The Warrior Paint greeting card project features the children’s colourful, collaborative paintings that incorporate images of their ancestors. Proceeds from the sales of the cards benefit the Iyahrhe Nakoda Food Bank Society. So far, the initiative has raised nearly $3,000.
Together with a Stoney artist, who goes by the name Bluebird, and their teachers, the young Glenbow pupils will be passing along their art techniques to about 260 attendees — teaching them to create paintings using archived photographs of residential schools.
Charlene Bearhead, coordinator of the educational portion of the event, said the Glenbow students were invited to present at the conference centre after she saw a display of the Warrior Paint project.
“I was so impressed by what these young ones were doing,” she said. “It symbolizes a genuine desire to learn about their history, and to makes a difference in their community now.”
An estimated 2,300 students are expected to head to Edmonton for the seventh — and final — TRC event. The gathering has already engaged students in Winnipeg, Man., Halifax N.S., and Montreal, Que., among other cities.
“This event is for all Canadian students to learn about Canada’s true history,” said Bearhead. “How can we move forward if we don’t address the past?”
A selection of workshops will be webcast at trc.ca on the day of the event.
