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Arts & Communication

ARTICLE
Reconciled futures: An art camp for Indigenous

youth

Sharon M. Fortney*
Museum of Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) identifies reconciliation as one of the four pillars
that guide its work. Reconciliation has become a matter of national significance
in Canada since the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Report in 2008, which
highlights the harmful legacies of residential schools on the daily lives of Indigenous
Canadians. It also demonstrated that social inequalities continue to persist across
the nation because of this, and other assimilationist policies previously adopted
under Canada’s Indian Act. Recommendations of the report were aimed at improving
Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations and removing barriers, both intentional
and unconscious, that prevent Indigenous Canadians from accessing the same
opportunities and services as other Canadians. It can take many years to implement
institutional change, but public programming offers an opportunity to demonstrate
intentions for change with more immediacy. This paper provides an overview
of an art program created for Indigenous youth in the Greater Vancouver area by
Indigenous professionals working in a museum setting. The initiative was funded
through a creative partnership between the MOV and the City of Vancouver’s Green
Infrastructure team and resulted in the creation of public art that was installed in a
*Corresponding author: Green Infrastructure demonstration project within the city.
Sharon M. Fortney
(sfortney@museumofvancouver.ca)
Citation: Fortney SM. Reconciled Keywords: Public art; Indigenous youth; Reconciliation; Museums; Northwest Coast Art;
futures: An art camp for indigenous Coast Salish; Green Infrastructure
youth. Arts & Communication.
2024;2(3):2488.
doi: 10.36922/ac.2488
Received: December 20, 2023 1. Introduction
Accepted: March 7, 2024
As a curator responsible for Indigenous collections and engagement in a museum that
Published Online: August 2, 2024 identifies reconciliation as one of its four pillars, I am obliged to ensure that our activities
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). are meaningful – that they move beyond intention to implementation. When I first began
This is an Open-Access article my career in museums, there were very few positions dedicated to Indigenous staff in
distributed under the terms Canadian museums and even fewer of those were curatorial positions. The situation has
of the Creative Commons
AttributionNoncommercial License, been gradually changing with the release of the Task Force Report on Museums and First
permitting all non-commercial use, Peoples, UNDRIP, and the Truth and Reconciliation Report. 3
2
1
distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work When I was hired in 2017, Curator of Indigenous Collections and Engagement was
is properly cited. a new position offered by the Museum of Vancouver (MOV). I was selected for this role
Publisher’s Note: AccScience because I had a doctorate in anthropology, several decades of museum work experience,
Publishing remains neutral with and Coast Salish ancestry through my mother’s family. The host nations of Vancouver
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional – Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh (MST), are Coast Salish peoples, so
affiliations. the latter was deemed important for maintaining good relationships, but I was also

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/ac.2488