RISE Collaboration

Reconciling Edmonton brings together four collaborators: Anna Marie Sewell, Miranda Jimmy, Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail and Jennie Vegt – two Indigenous, two settler – to explore the intersections of these threads of history in the city through public art. Too often Edmonton’s story is presented as one of pioneers, homesteaders and settlement that ends with the Second World War.

In addition, textbooks, heritage institutions, and popular media have also relegated Indigenous Peoples to the distant past. We want to help shift these perspectives through visual art and poetry grounded in the historic record. What were moments when Indigenous individuals and settlers came together in Edmonton’s past? What can we learn from how they were photographed and documented?

The result of Reconciling Edmonton is seven historical images, seven paintings, and seven pieces of poetry inspired by the community. These represent seven generations – roughly the 150 years since the late Fort Edmonton period and Treaty Six signing, as well as the 150 years the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found the Residential School system lasted.

RISE would like the paintings and poetry to travel to various venues for future installations. For exhibit inquiries, please contact risedm@telus.net

Sitting High: 1884

Sitting High: 1884, 2015

Oil on Canvas

24x30

Sitting High: 1884

Looking at them with 21st Century eyes

It is hard not to only see destruction and shame

Do you suppose they know

what lies ahead? The way

the horizon here can bend

or revealing, by atmospheric whim

the shame of the edge of the known.

Or accompany him to an important meeting?

aspen and fence at attention

like bars of a jail, or an honour guard.

Sad horse in a pretty dress

and these unsmiling Mounties

one wears a name – McCauley – that will

become synonymous with struggle.

Is it sternness? Arrogance?

up or down, concealing

Do they detain the man?

Do they see how long

is the journey past that?

Chief Ermineskin, sitting high

Wears regalia that will be outlawed,

That will survive; that will become

Flag and stereotype and homecoming.

Poetry by Anna Marie Sewell and Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

Circles: "Indian Dance"

Circles: Indian Dance, 2015

Oil on Canvas

24 x 30"

Circles: Indian Dance

I don’t believe this is Edmonton

But squint and research and there it is

the wide, dirt road of Whyte Avenue

where the Dairy Queen is today,

the same place where Pride gathers,

a century ago, a celebration.

Are they blessing a voyage, or offering tribute

to treaties signed not long ago? Do they

take back the land with their song?

Drummers, singers, Elders

send a prayer up on smoke

watch respectfully, bespectacled,

with bowler hats and bicycles

buggies and Red River carts.

Why have they gathered?

These settlers and newcomers

original Nations next to the Union Jack

out in front of the General Store?

This is Edmonton, the wide, dirt road

a century ago, a celebration, the same

Land, we all take it back in our songs.

pass the pipe, passerby

Poetry by Anna Marie Sewell and Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

Royal: The Gamble

Royal: the Gamble, 2015

Oil on Canvas

24 x 30 "

Royal: The Gamble

we will wear cloth caps and stand in your lines

for wage earning jobs, hopeful

that the buffalo, those weary piles of souls adrift

will forgive our flirtation with necessity

atonement, anguish, remembrance

we will send him like an avatar

as if to say, we are children, mild and meek

we are not made of tatanka now, we walk

and we do not remember the wind

but we’re not simply waiting, forgetting the promise

we abide, eyes fixed on what it will take

to bring them home again. we are here

with the weight of what you have done

this unspeakable, uncounted crime

a child, though, may yet wear beads

and see in our finery’s flash

in our sober dancing

a promise.

into the face of the camera

the roaring tide has subsided

our pride and our fear.

Poetry by Anna Marie Sewell and Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

Camsel: First Baptism

Camsel: First Baptism, 2015

Oil on Canvas

24x30"

Camsell: First Baptism

Her kimono blooms.

Did her uncles carry ore?

New life, southern child

Poetry by Anna Marie Sewell and Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

Steinhauer: 1975

Steinhauer:1975, 2015

Oil on Canvas

24 x 30"

Steinhauer: 1975

Caution in his eyes, and the Long View

from Saddle Lake to Legislature

this Hewer of Stone carved his place

among the names recorded here.

About to cut into cake,

About to celebrate; public servant,

Hewer of Stone, what wish does he make?

The long view, for all his relations

Poetry by Anna Marie Sewell and Danielle Metcalfe Chenail

Sam and Cliff: Pacing

Sam and Cliff: Pacing, 2015

Oil on Canvas

24 x 30"

Sam and Cliff: Pacing

Sam Sinclair knew

politics is a runner’s game

pacing is everything.

The last time I saw him

Sam asked, ‘Who are you

working for now?’ I knew

just what he meant.

How do you serve the people?

It was given that I would. This

Is what his generation

Raised our generation to do.

Sam, Cliff, Joanne, Thelma, Stan,

those oldtime politicians

toiled the long course til they won

Métis rights in the Law of our Land.

The race goes on.

Poetry by Anna Marie Sewell and Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

Circles 2: Our Dance

Circles 2: Our Dance, 2015

Oil on Canvas

24 x 30"

Circles 2: Our Dance

This, now, is our dance

purses, backpacks, satchels

suits, uniforms, and jeans

this is us at work

at play, a joyful day

in Churchill Square

A circle to celebrate and remember

To come together, today

and tomorrow

in the spirit of Wicihitowin

the best of all we ever are.

Poetry by Anna Marie Sewell and Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

Miranda

Miranda

This is a portrait of my friend Miranda Jimmy, who I met at City Hall. She was brave enough to share with me her story of the trauma she has experienced as an intergenerational survivor of the residential school system.

The idea for this particular painting began when I saw tree trunks that had been painted white in order to protect their bark from the intense sun. The concept of white as protection and the visual intrigue of something so natural being so sloppily painted over, illustrated for me a murky visual parallel with our own history. There are several ways to read this imagery and each opens up to a different dialogue. The white paint bleaches out Miranda's moccasins which are otherwise adorned in colourful intricate beading. This touches on the attempted assimilation of her culture. Being a woman with white painted legs, Miranda represents an aspect of our lack of investment in our missing and murdered Indigenous women. The imagery suggests that perhaps she is safer being painted white. There is a violence and sense of ownership in the action of being painted. Some of the trees surrounding Miranda have been cut down, and many still stand but they are almost all marked.

There is a white picket fence arbitrarily snaking through the forest creating a barrier. The fence painted with the same white paint requires the trees to not be protected, but rather to be cleared/resourced.

The painting is dark and Miranda almost blends in with the forest because I feel as though I am in the dawn of my own understanding, and am just beginning to see as my eyes adjust to the information presented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Though she looks alone and maybe even lost in the painting, Miranda stands proud and holds a heart with the words "Love and Respect". After drawing together a group of people called RISE (Reconciliation in Solidarity Edmonton), she organized the planting of a heart garden consisting of 1000 hearts with words of hope and encouragement for reconciliation.

She is hellbent on stopping the cycle of abuse, and she has unlimited patience with those of us who are just starting to understand the truth of what went on in those schools.

Thank you to those who have found the bravery to share your story. It's a part of our combined history and it has become clear more than ever that Aboriginal issues are everyone's issues.

Heart Garden

Heart Garden, 2015

Digital Print

Taking inspiration from the Heart Gardens that were planted across Canada during the TRC Closing Ceremonies, RISE invited community members in Edmonton to create their own hearts to plant. The hearts include messages to residential school survivors and commitments to reconciliation in words and imagery, made by people of all ages and backgrounds. Over 1200 hearts were then planted in various public spaces in Edmonton to create a mobile garden of reflection and hope.

After the hearts toughed it out through weather and foot-traffic for weeks, we decided to document them to continue their message. Some of the hearts that were made were either destroyed or went missing. These are signified by the empty squares in the grid. However, these empty spaces also suggest room for growth, an invitation for the viewer's own thoughts of hope. Some of the hearts that were once painted with bright colours are faded, streaked, or even broken from weather conditions, but their message stays.

This is what reconciliation looks like.

Spirit and Intent

Spirit and Intent: Treaty 6 Recognition Day 2014

Oil on Canvas

24 x 30"

Wallflower Superhero

Wallflower Super Hero

Oil on Canvas

24x30"

This painting is based off of an image from my "Wallflower Photobooth Project" as seen on my "News" page. The people working away in offices are the behind-the-scenes heros that make the City work.

Illustration of a Temper Tantrum

Card Players

Alayne

For Cindy

Alex

In the Background: Part I

In the Background: Part I, 2014

Oil on Canvas

36 x 48"

In the Background: Part II

In the Background: Part II, 2014

Oil on Canvas

36x48"

Power Napper

Councilmania!

Councilmania!, 2014

Collaboration Project

Mixed Media on Canvas

36 x 48"

Participating Artists:

Astra Aqui, Celia Bai, Andreanne Deedot, Mary Jane de Guzman, Amanda Hobbs, Marilyn Johnman, Gabryel Joseph, Laura Kennedy, Mavis Nathoo, Taunya Proudlove, Kim Robinson, Jennie Vegt, Tara Young

City BBQ

Councilor Caterina

Council Chambers

Citizen Martin

Public Hearing

Look Out

Winter YEG

Winter YEG, 2014

Mixed Media on Board (diptych)