The Witness Blanket

There is a new art installation by First Nations artist, Carey Newman, called The Witness Blanket. It recently opened at the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island with the hope that there will be a national tour. It is not an actual blanket but it takes it's inspiration from the traditional blanket and incorporates artifacts and items from a shameful era in Canadian history. Here is the description:

For many of us, it identifies who we are and where we’re from
– we wear them in ceremony and give them as gifts. Blankets protect our young and comfort our elders.

Inspired by a woven blanket, we have created a large scale art installation, made out of hundreds of items reclaimed from Residential Schools, churches, government buildings and traditional and cultural structures including Friendship Centres, band offices, treatment centres and universities, from across Canada. The Witness Blanket stands as a national monument to recognise the atrocities of the Indian Residential School era, honour the children, and symbolise ongoing reconciliation.

I heard Newman speak about the project on radio and was touched when he described finding a child's shoe in the woods near one of the former residential school's and what it was like for him to hold it as a symbol of lost childhood. He became emotional as he shared the journey of creating the installation.



We know that the United Church of Canada was involved in the Residential School system and we have apologized for this grave injustice, a form of cultural genocide. http://www.united-church.ca/aboriginal/schools/faq/history The United Church has paid reparations to many school survivors and created the Healing Fund twenty years ago which raised more than a million dollars to fund projects for emotional and spiritual restoration within First Nations communities and circles. The denomination has also participated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a tear-stained journey through the stories of those who were so deeply affected.

For these reasons and others I am intrigued by this art project and hope that it will make its way eastward.

Would you want to see it? Do you think we need to see it?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/a-few-of-the-hundreds-of-residential-schools-artifacts-that-make-up-the-witness-blanket/article18727028/?from=18737261