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Arts & Communication Reconciled futures

Figure 7. Heron and sun sculpture was created by three Tsawwassen
youths. City of Vancouver Photo. Copyright (c) 2019. Reprinted with
permission of the City of Vancouver.

Figure 9. Acknowledgment Panel was created by the City of Vancouver
Green Infrastructure team for the Installation. Copyright (c) 2019.
Reprinted with permission of the City of Vancouver.

Similarly, the Reconciled Futures project was successful
on many fronts. The youths all gave positive feedback on
their evaluation forms where they praised their art instructor
Karen Francis, the collections visits, and the afternoon
workshops with visiting Indigenous artists. Two of the
parents also emailed with positive feedback — one asking if
we would offer the camp again as a summer program. One
Figure 8. A Haida raven sculpture is being installed at the site. City of student wrote on their evaluation, “I liked all of the learning
Vancouver Photo. Copyright (c) 2019. Reprinted with permission of the
City of Vancouver. opportunities. I’m not very involved with the Native culture,
and it was a good immersion.” When asked if we should
in a family where knowledge transmission had been change anything, seven responded “no,” while the other two
disrupted by the Kuper Island Residential School, this was suggested we should “move the tables closer together” next
a transformative experience – one that created a sense of time and “offer more time for the final project,” respectively.
cultural belonging and pride. There can be great power The impetus for this program was a desire to offer
in these small moments, and this was important in a something for Indigenous youths from the MST
small community where I experienced racism from some communities that aligned with the self-expressed learning
classmates for the way I looked. This opportunity was for goals of these nations. An example of such goals can be
all grade four students and probably connected to the social found on the website of Ta na wa Ns7éyx̱nitm ta Snew̓íyelh,
studies curriculum (First Nations are studied in grade four the Squamish Nation Language and Cultural Affairs team:
in our province), but it was a meaningful engagement for “Ta na wa Ns7éyx̱nitm ta Snew̓íyelh has a
everyone who participated. I remember that we all looked mandate to grow the language and culture of the
forward to these learning activities – knitting a purse or Squamish People. The departmental objectives are
scarf, beading on a loom, and hand beading a necklace, to develop and implement policies and programs
sometimes just because it offered us exposure to a different to ensure the Squamish People have access to their
type of learning experience and got us out of our desks. language, culture, heritage, and archives. The

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 8 doi: 10.36922/ac.2488