TITLE:
An Examination of Children’s Artworks from Canadian Indigenous Residential Schools
AUTHORS:
Joanna Black
KEYWORDS:
Visual Art Education, Indigenous Education, Art Teaching and Learning, Art Pedagogy, Art Curriculum Development, Canadian Contemporary Indigenous Art, Indigenous Culture in Canada, Residential Schools, Culture, Education
JOURNAL NAME:
Art and Design Review,
Vol.11 No.4,
November
16,
2023
ABSTRACT: Residential school students within Canadian schools
created imagery that was recently collected
by the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (NTRC). Five works
were selected from numerous artworks archived. Compositional interpretation and discourse analysis were employed in this study. Using art as historical recovery, it was found that these cultural artifacts provided records of the children as witnesses regarding their experiences at residential
schools. Additionally, these visual pictures reveal these young students’
personal lives, and emotional, political, and societal perspectives. In this research, the images allow viewers to comprehend this
historical period full of struggle and allow these cultural artifacts
to be communicated to future viewers. Finally, the findings reveal these indigenous
children communicated both joy in nature and discourse of powerlessness and
oppression by nonindigenous peoples in the face of Canadian colonialism.