Student artists from Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS) and GC Huston Public School, accompanied by SDSS Principal Melissa McEwen (standing, third from left), renowned Métis artist Christi Belcourt (standing, fourth from left), traditional Ojibway Storyteller and artist Isaac Murdoch (seated, far right) and Saugeen First Nation Elder Shirley John (seated, centre), celebrated the completion of three murals with an unveiling ceremony April 7 in the SDSS Cafetorium.

Hub Staff

A week-long collaboration of minds, creativity and artistic talent from Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS) and GC Huston Public School culminated in a grand unveiling off three murals that depict the importance of water and First Nation teachings at SDSS April 7.

Renowned Métis artist Christi Belcourt and traditional Ojibway Storyteller and artist Isaac Murdoch, both of The Onaman Collective, guided select students from both schools throughout the week-long project. At the unveiling on Friday, April 7, Belcourt said she and Murdoch planned little ahead of time. “We kind of, we wing it... we don’t necessarily plan anything out, we do the minimal amount of planning that’s necessary in order to create space for organic, creative thought and organic processes to happen” said the artist.

SDSS Principal Melissa McEwen said the project was a true collaboration. “A collaboration of minds, across panels, across interests, across commitments and backgrounds,” she said. “I feel that the final outcome is absolutely outstanding. So kudos to everyone who touched canvas this week, I’m very proud of your work.”

SDSS Art Teacher Jan Coleman-Sanagan said the murals are all rooted in the same story. “Communities have forgotten, they’ve taken and taken and taken from the land and they have forgotten to give offerings back,” she said, explaining that the first mural depicts a serpent taking two children as a result of the community’s carelessness, with the second telling the story of a trickster invading the community, which they’re forced to abandon by canoe in the middle of the night.

Then the third instalment, which reads “Water is Life”, illustrates the area in Ontario where the story is said to have taken place. The canvas displays Anishinaabeg names of places in the region and is a depiction of a boy who had been fishing and gotten trapped on an island during a flood. In hoping for his safe passage home, his family gives offerings to the water. “The serpent finds him on the island and offers him a ride back to his community,” said Coleman-Sanagan.

Grade 10 student Rachel Shave said the paintings showed her that every action comes with a consequence.

Saugeen First Nation Elder Shirley John conducted a smudging ceremony, said a prayer and sang a song. She said it is a blessing to work for the water. “It’s an ongoing thing to be in prayer all the time for the water; the rivers, the streams, the lakes, the oceans and all bodies of water,” she said. “It is not only for my people, it’s for all nations.”

Murdoch, whose Thunderbird Woman image became the symbol for the resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, expanded on the centre panel, which depicted a village on fire, and called it a “haunting”. He explained that the story had taken place in the early 1900s, around the time the Indian Act came into full effect, restricting Indigenous movement and ceremony. “They believed the village was haunted because people weren’t giving their offerings to the water,” said Murdoch.

Murdoch said the stories help us to expand our minds into believing again that there is something greater on this earth and that “there’s natural laws that govern everything; and of course part of the natural laws is to give something back to the earth, to leave it the same way you found it,” he said.

Murdoch told the students that the future was in their hands and encouraged them to follow their dreams but to also protect the earth. “Right now we know that eco systems all over the world are struggling and things that took billions of years to develop are being wiped out within a generation and so follow your dream but also uphold the responsibility that you have for the earth and the waters.”

He said, “We can change this, we need to change it, we have to find a new way forward.”

The murals will be installed at the high school, the results of a survey distributed to participating students will determine the precise location.

Saugeen First Nation Elder Shirley John opened the unveiling ceremony with a prayer, song and smudging ceremony.

Christi Belcourt explains the meaning and symbolism behind the imagery to those in attendance.

Isaac Murdoch, Ojibway Storyteller and artist held a captive audience as he spoke about the importance of water and the role of youth during the mural unveiling April 7.

The SDSS students who painted each canvas were called up in three groups to talk about their experience working on their section of the mural.

See: Renowned artist Christi Belcourt collaborates with Saugeen Shores students