0:04

you ready i think we’re starting hi everyone uh we’re going to wait a couple minutes for our

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lion to join us uh welcome to a curious tour by m.j belcourt moses of george

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little’s child’s exhibition which is closing this weekend so we’re very lucky to have mj here to lead this curator’s

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tour i just want to briefly uh thank everyone for being here uh we also have people online we’re going to have the

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curious tour and then we’re going to finish up with the 15-minute q a so um think about your questions

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throughout the tour uh and before we get started i just want to thank our sponsor canada council for

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the arts who sponsor all our digital programs so without further delay here’s mj

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thank you hi everyone dan say my name is melissa

0:50

jo belcourt moses that’s my full name but i do go by mj so please

0:55

mj my family’s from the laksana metis community

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and uh so the bell courts latandras the callahus uh are all my relations um

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we’re all also connected to the michelle band so uh lots of family just west of the

1:13

city and so the bell courts have been in this this territory in this lands for

1:19

uh well the community actually sort of started around 1840s ish so lexington’s

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been sort of definitely been around for a while so all those uh that are from there are my

1:31

relations my mix my is cree mohawk in french uh apitagosan

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which means that we’re mixed blood metis so that’s who we are and that’s who my family is

1:43

so um you also want to honor uh the treaty peoples that we are and

1:51

the lands that we we do reside on so hi hi um

1:57

i do want to say that i’m i’m really grateful that i am here and i was able was given this opportunity to showcase

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uh such a a poignant uh exhibit so and i do have to apologize i do have to

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refer to notes i’m i have just uh a lot going on and i do have memories

2:17

that that don’t connect very well so i’m sorry i have to refer to my notes i wish

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i could just memorize everything but and i do have glasses i always forget to

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put them on you know and then i think why am i squinting okay here we go

2:33

those are the joys right of getting a little older

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so to begin with though i i knew that i wanted to bring awareness to indigenous peoples stories lives

2:46

that that we sometimes bypass and so um i was grateful when i spoke to george

2:53

and he said i just finished a series on on the children from residential schools the unnamed

2:59

unknown uh children and so i was really i was really grateful that

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george uh that we had talked and that uh this came about so that we could share this exhibit uh

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with with everyone so it’s um and this was actually done before

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his his series was finished before the the find of the 215

3:22

from kamloops were found so um so this has been something that has i

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mean it hasn’t it just hasn’t just arrived it just happened we know that this has happened and has gone

3:34

on for over 150 years so we know that this has been an issue but it’s it’s definitely come to the light especially

3:40

with the fines that um that of the of the children unfortunately so just a little bit about

3:47

george um over the course of about four a 40-year career george has been has had

3:52

numerous solo and group exhibitions his art has been exhibited in canada the united states japan australia tasmania

4:00

and europe as a world-renowned artist his books and art have won numerous and awards and scholarships to date he has

4:06

curated hundreds of artwork which hang in public and private collections around the world

4:12

he was uh he started a drawing he said when he was around four probably earlier but um when

4:18

he was around four so he said he became a full-time artist at the age of 30. he received a diploma

4:25

in art and design from the red deer college in 1984 in an uh bfa from the

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nova scotia college of art and design halifax in 1988 he also received an

4:36

honorary doctrine degree from the university of fraser valley his socially charged mixed media paintings are

4:43

in response to political movements societal concerns and such as reconciliation reclamation and as well

4:50

his personal history and to quote george he says in my work i am committed to

4:55

writing the wrongs that first nations people have endured by creating art that focuses on cultural social and political

5:03

injustices as an artist educator and cultural worker my goal is a better world it is

5:09

my job to show pride strength and beauty of first nations people and cultures and

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contribute to the betterment of mankind i actually really like that part that he’s you know contributing and wanting

5:21

to contribute to the betterment of mankind so i’ve known george for many years i’ve admired his work

5:29

actually the first time i met him was at the native art and show and sale there

5:36

used to be these really amazing uh art shows indigenous art shows here in edmonton and it was like mid eight

5:43

1980s to the early 1990s uh that they

5:48

had these really awesome shows and and i was an art student an indigenous art student

5:55

to the city with my class from lac la bish and that’s where i met george for the first time

6:02

there was of course as a starving artist student you know you don’t have a lot of money buddy but he did have some

6:08

art cards that i was i thought i can afford those and i might not be able to afford a print or an original but i can

6:15

afford those beautiful cards so um the one that i did actually bought two of them and one of them was it was on

6:21

horses and it was called oh where am i here a spot on horse blanket and the other

6:28

one was winter count so um martha campio actually was one of the origin organizers of these big uh

6:35

indigenous showcases and and they were pretty pretty amazing uh there’s all

6:41

kinds of art from you know carving and quill work and beadwork and and lots of

6:47

beautiful paintings and so i’m i think i was just bug-eyed at all this beautiful

6:52

work um but i did walk away with those beautiful cards of george’s and so um

6:57

i didn’t really i kind of met him there but then it wasn’t until years later that i met him

7:02

again over the museum and found out that he knew my late uh

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brother my half brother bruce belcourt so we became friends through that connection and and just remained friends

7:14

ever since and so he’s always been an encouragement to me and my artwork and my my my path that i’ve been traveling on

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so a wonderful very kind-hearted person and once you get to know george you realize

7:26

that he does have a very kind heart and and why you can see through his art that it’s very thoughtful and uh meaningful

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uh with with whatever he takes on so um it’s been it’s been good to know him

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um let’s see here so welcome to uh the exhibit here i am can you see me by

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george little child his cree name is and i’m my cree is not very good i am taking a

7:53

cree course online but my crew is still not the greatest but i’ll just try

7:59

uh na na na na kawasis and nagawasas okay which

8:05

means swift child so um and i wish george was here to explain that whole story because it is it’s a

8:12

very interesting story and how it connects to a little child as his last name

8:18

but today we are living canadians are living um in a time of truth and and reconciliation and learning about

8:25

these truths the traumatic experience of indigenous children families and communities who

8:30

have survived the residential school system the work in this exhibition includes

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series of drawings of first nations children’s graves discharge records of those attended residential school in

8:43

musco cheese alberta and um and well i would guess it was formerly known

8:49

as obima the exhibition also includes intimate photographs of georgia’s family members his

8:55

this is actually his mother here her name is rachel so that’s george little child’s mother

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uh and his two uncles actually and so they’re over on this side of the wall between the nun those are his uncles

9:09

photographs or paint pictures of his drawings of his uncles as well

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but we’ll talk a little bit more about that i’m just kind of giving you a little brief here and then we’ll get into a little bit more

9:20

um so after being released at the age of 16 his mom um she was in

9:27

uh ho bima at that time it was called masques today but at the age of 16 she timed out of of

9:35

residential schools so she was allowed to leave and at that time the past system

9:40

um just had been dissolved it was uh in the early 60s when they finally got rid of the past

9:47

system the past system basically was you couldn’t leave the reserve unless you had a pass from the indian agent you had

9:54

to get signed permission to leave you usually carried a little pouch with you that you would

10:00

keep your identification in your number because everyone was given a number

10:06

and your permission slip in a sense that if you were caught outside of the reserve that you could show that you

10:11

were allowed to leave maybe it was to see a doctor maybe it was to see some family members in another part of

10:20

the area so they had to carry this with them so it wasn’t long after that though

10:26

she came out of that experience residential school and she

10:32

decided to come to edmonton she had um a son and unfortunately he

10:38

passed away when he was very young and then had four more children and that’s where george’s family his his brothers

10:44

and sisters come from so from the same family but unfortunately uh i think the struggles

10:51

the traumatic experiences the things that she went through were pretty

10:56

hard to deal with and so turned to alcohol and that became something that basically

11:03

took her took her life in a sense at the age of 37 she passed away

11:08

which is really a really sad story actually you see if i can

11:14

get back to where i am um yeah so his uncles alfred little child and

11:22

louie a little child so that’s these ones over here and maybe i’ll just i want to make sure i have the right ones

11:31

um okay

11:39

i think this is his uncle louie but i’ll just read the caption and it says i draw

11:44

for those who say residential school never happened uncle alfred that’s uncle alfred your life ended because you died

11:51

while young at hermanskin indian residential school unknown causes and that’s the unfortunate part of it is

11:58

that um there is there’s all these deaths but there’s no

12:03

no i no reasoning behind it there’s it just says that they died and so also the

12:10

homage to uncle louis uncle louis little child who died at earman’s canadian residential school 1921 to 1933.

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auntie tilly said he was an artist and nice looking so that was that’s his other uncle that he’s representing there

12:24

so i just wanted you to make sure that you’ve seen that his that’s his family members that were here and that had gone

12:31

through residential school okay

12:37

so the residential school system was a government policy that basically they wanted to rid the indian

12:43

and save the man so taking young children from their family forcibly separating and isolating them from

12:50

their communities and cultures in an attempt to assimilate the people so sadly that

12:57

many many children never returned from these schools they lost their lives at the hands of the so-called well-meaning religious

13:04

figures of authority those who have survived have had to deal with many issues

13:09

from sexual mental emotional and physical abuse for almost 150 years in canada

13:16

from 1863 to as recently as 1998 more than 130 residential schools were

13:22

funded by the canadian government until 1969 69 many of these were ran and

13:29

operated by the church for christian churches so in 2015 a report

13:36

by the truth and reconciliation commission the trc documented 3 200 children who had died

13:43

at residential school but the numbers of death could be 10 times more and as we’re finding out in fact um and so

13:50

it is reverence in reverence we are deeply saddened uh by the recent discovery of over 7 000

13:58

children to date and they’re still counting because they’re still doing the investigations and the um

14:04

penetrate ground penetrating um machines that they have so they’re still

14:10

it’s still ongoing and so we don’t know how what the number will be but it is a

14:15

pretty horrible event and it’s pretty tragic when you think about that um

14:21

so in georgia’s words and it is on the wall but it says i want to give remembrance recognition honor and

14:27

validation to the thousands of innocent children that nobody is able to recognize as they stand amongst their fellow residential

14:34

schools students in the photograph all but forgotten in the museum archival correct

14:39

collections in this manner i seek to legitimize their lives and restore a

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modicum of dignity emoticon sorry of dignity and importance to their short

14:49

existence in the world so um through this

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um exhibit and through george’s works and and the time he took to go through

15:00

the photographs that this is just one of them one of the examples as his mother is in this one that he

15:06

that we have this one in in the gallery but many many photographs that he found of of children that were

15:13

lined up at a school at a residential school and a photograph taken and

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and even many of them we don’t know their names george actually took it upon himself to

15:27

after he was doing all this research at the archives taking these photos ordering the eight by tens he would

15:33

bring them to the elders in muscus and sit down and visit and talk to them and

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ask them if they recognized any of these children and he said that they actually were able

15:44

to identify approximately 85 percent but the rest um

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there’s no names so uh just just a very sad thing and mostly this is due to due

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to the fact that they were given numbers that they had to sew in their clothing

16:01

so um their names they never used their names they were just given a number

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so you know if you can imagine being brought to this school your head is shaved you’re

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you’re doused with white powder for to you know for a fleas

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you’re given basically a uniform to wear you couldn’t wear your own clothes you

16:25

couldn’t speak your own language you couldn’t play any cultural games and heaven forbid if you were caught doing

16:30

some sort of little ceremony that you remembered maybe as a child that you

16:36

basically you were you were punished you were beaten um and sometimes tortured you know to to

16:42

take this out of that person and so and sadly these children

16:48

lost their identity i mean you can’t go through that experience and not um feel

16:54

proud of yourself and and so there’s a lot of shame associated with that my grandmother went to residential school

17:01

and she denied who she was all her life all her life she passed away she would tell people she was ukrainian or french

17:07

or something other because she did not want to be identified as indigenous so

17:12

very very sad time and i’m really hoping that this awareness that this type of of

17:18

um exhibit does bring to light these atrocities but also that

17:26

that there’s people that are still healing from this and so that we can maybe

17:31

have a little bit more understanding and so that we can be a better people

17:37

generally you know i’d say uh speaking okay let me see where am i

17:44

okay [Music] okay so this timely exhibit seeks to

17:50

honor these lost souls so the unknown will be known and not forgotten

17:56

when george was 17 he found out who his mother was where he came from and the tragedies of residential school and the

18:02

system that robbed him the bond of a mother and child george was part of the 60s scoop and

18:08

this is during the 60s that also another tragic um ongoing sort of events

18:15

from the residential school but it was a tragic first-hand knowledge where where children were taken from

18:21

their home separated from their families and put into foster care just one of the impacts of the

18:27

residential school system once he once he found out his beginnings george spent many hours researching and it took him

18:34

um about 11 years he said to actually find all his family that was still um in

18:40

musco cheese at in herman’s skin so it took some time

18:45

and it was in some ways it was in some disbelief he thought he was first nation and found

18:51

out of course his mom was but his father was of um oh

18:56

no i was going to say dutch but it’s not because that’s his his foster parents were a dutch descent

19:01

i can’t remember i’ll have to think about that but his father was non-indigenous and so um but both of

19:07

them unfortunately his both parents suffered from alcohol abuse and so

19:13

um his father wasn’t in the picture and of course his mother was had passed when

19:18

she was 37. his his father they believed he was either it was either suicide or

19:25

some other tragedy that took his life so and he was also young i think he was in his early 50s

19:31

so um let’s see george also talked about

19:37

going to residential school his um and all 12 of their children went to residential school that

19:43

his mom of course is part of the 12 and so

19:49

this is something that when we think about all of it’s it’s um

19:55

it’s kind of an ongoing uh tragedy of of events thank you um

20:02

where children have gone through these experiences come out

20:07

and then um they’re basically they’re they’re lost

20:13

in in many ways so we can see what when you know going through

20:19

and you know you’re you know you never had anyone to tell you that i love you or that you’re doing

20:25

a good job or to get that pat on the back or that hug you know before you go to bed and nobody was there to rescue

20:31

you nobody was there to take care of you is you’re basically alone with all these other children but you didn’t really

20:37

know them um and so it was just a really tragic event and so of what had happened

20:43

and often uh going to bed hungry they ate porridge um every day they weren’t

20:48

they didn’t have a balanced diet it was just um porridge a lot of porridge from what i i

20:55

understand what i’ve i’ve read about too so um so then in the 94 calls to action under

21:03

the heading missing children and burial information these children are finally acknowledged being acknowledged and work

21:09

has begun to recognize and remember these lost souls so under the calls 71-76 i’m just going

21:15

to briefly go through it there’s a lot more to the highlights the mission the commission calls under

21:22

chief coroners and vital statistics agencies that are not provided death records to commissions to make the

21:28

documents available to the national center for truth reconciliation and this center is actually in winnipeg

21:35

they ask that the resources be made available to the center to allow to it to develop and maintain a national

21:41

residential school death registry established by the commission they also asked the federal government to work

21:47

with churches aboriginal communities and former residential school students to establish and maintain an online

21:53

registry of residential school cemeteries included were possible plot maps showing

22:00

the location of residential schools so they’re doing this right now with the the ground penetrating

22:05

graves that they’ve they found so it’s in some ways it’s encouraging because

22:11

now at least we’ll know we’ll have a we’ll have a better idea of what how many lives are lost and then they

22:17

can be taken care of too they ask that churches and aboriginal leaders inform families of the

22:22

children’s burial locations and respond to families wishes for appropriate commemorative ceremonies and markers and

22:29

re re-burial and home communities were requested they asked for the implementation of strategies and

22:35

procedures for the documentation maintenance commemoration and protection of residential school ceremonies

22:41

the commission also asked that the consideration be be given to allow communities to lead the process that

22:48

informa information be sought from survivors and knowledge keepers to develop these tragedies

22:55

lastly they asked the aboriginal protocols that that these protocols be respected

23:01

before any technical uh potentially invasive inspections or investigations be done in these

23:06

ceremonies cemeteries and so protocol meaning that they would probably um

23:13

have some pipe ceremonies or smudging and these kind of things that would would happen

23:19

or take place so let’s just kind of walk around a little bit i’ll talk a little bit about

23:25

the spirit house um yeah maybe no actually we’ll do that at

23:32

the last why don’t we just talk about george’s work for now and we’ll go from here so

23:38

if you notice if you notice that um all of the

23:43

the drawings have there’s not a lot of color and if you know george’s work george has his work is so vibrant and so

23:50

colorful that this is just a really high contrast to what his normal work is and

23:55

when you see his work so um [Music] but it is it is a series on the subject

24:02

matter and that’s why he has painted it or drew and and usually he’s painting so i always want to say painting but uh he

24:09

drew this with pencil mostly and some markers and the things and those kind of things so

24:14

but you’ll notice that there is red around all of the the the people and so this red is

24:22

symbolic of the blood uh the blood lost but also that um in residential school

24:27

that uh that christ was uh died for

24:32

uh for your lives and so this is something that was indoctrinated to these children that they knew that when

24:38

they were going through this residential school system um of course a lot of the crosses you’ll see and most of them they don’t have

24:46

names written on them but they are crosses representing um being in these

24:52

church-run um institutions um we

24:57

when when i asked george and talked about the exhibit and having a red wall

25:02

and i said i just think you know we we need something that’s really bold and and also to

25:09

to reflect and symbolize that the blood lost again

25:15

and and of course uh what it represents for george as well

25:20

um there is some some of them just are saying anti unidentified this one is

25:28

typical unidentified child from the airman’s skin indian residential school and it has a number four so

25:35

he drew these and put numbers to them just in sequence of how he passed

25:40

time and so when it came to displaying them i asked them do you want them changed do you want it separate he said

25:46

no let’s just leave it as uh that way so that people can understand where i started and the progress of how i kept

25:53

going with with all the drawings so that’s why we laid it out just as is but i thought it was interesting when we

26:00

have that number number one number two number three as it goes on that these

26:05

children again weren’t given a name they were just given a number and so they are

26:11

unidentified in this way the doors and the windows that you see

26:16

in his drawings also represent being able to look out but not being

26:23

able to leave and so a longing for their home their their way of life

26:29

so but unfortunately these things were taken away from them

26:35

you’ll also notice that there’s all these little checks that are counting or marking offs and those

26:41

are actually uh um from the priest’s perspective the souls that they’ve saved so uh many many

26:48

checks like house as he has in his drawings uh this one over here

26:55

in particular he has a little oat grains so that’s representing the porridge and

27:01

that’s what they were allowed to eat and given to eat lots of porridge

27:07

um he has the crosses on the side as an x and it’s it’s the wrongs that were

27:12

done and so that’s what is represented in and so more of the crosses without names

27:18

on them that we can see here it says i unidentified grave markers at

27:24

hermanson grave so that’s the same on unidentified grave markers

27:29

again the windows and the doors not being able to leave

27:38

and then there’s there’s this one here and

27:43

and if we notice there’s like little tiny little eggs is what he has here and he

27:49

has one that is blown up identified as a lice so these are nice eggs that he has

27:56

um [Music] i wish he would have i mean i maybe this does sort of look like that child’s hair

28:02

and head has been shaved but when he talks about that powder being thrown on them so that they didn’t have

28:09

to deal with the lice it makes you think of a concentration camp it’s not a school and where children are going to

28:15

learn they’re they’re being kind of locked in and in prison and and they have they’re

28:21

they’re basically there to to work that the girls did cleaned and sewed and the boys did

28:27

outside work so they i mean they did get some education of course but um

28:33

but really it was it was these children that were working and in these labor

28:39

camps in a sense so um this is the the nun that is actually in

28:45

the uh the photograph so he took that um a photograph of the nun and drew her

28:51

here so um she just looks very hard

28:56

mean and not very not very pleasant um he did talk about

29:02

one of the nuns that had taken off her habit and or hadn’t put it on yet and

29:07

she had her head was shaved bald um and because she kept they kept those

29:12

habits on all the time and so the uh children never really got to see them uh

29:18

what they look like without without that on so uh but george did talk about that as an experience that he heard from one

29:24

of the elders um this picture here of one of the priests

29:30

uh some these white strips behind him is actually the

29:35

bones of the children and so that’s what’s represented in this one here

29:40

kind of makes you feel sick actually if you think about it so it’s not a not a very pleasant

29:46

thought but this is father pierre mullen bringer of souls to jesus and god

29:53

they talk about he he went to the elders and had a visit with them and and

29:59

the elders told him how when he first arrived he was a very slim tall man and

30:04

then as the years went by and he was at the residential school he said he was he was he became very overweight and he

30:11

said there was he had a big belly and yet the children went to bed you know hungry and yet the priest and

30:18

you know were of course had to have been indulging somewhere to i mean he wasn’t starving obviously so

30:25

um just kind of sad when you think about that too um so these are the the um

30:33

discharge papers that george found this is not his writing he basically drew it

30:38

as it was from these um these books discharge books

30:43

but he says the remarks he says he started noticing something that through them

30:49

the reason why they they laughed with their grade their age their and why they left so

30:55

some of there was lots that timed over but they were sickly lots of sickly and then he started noticing that there was

31:01

a lot that said dead or died death but there was no reason beside it it just said they died so um

31:09

and that’s what i mentioned earlier which was unfortunate that and so through this um he did

31:15

drew this one with tears so there’s tears on this on this um discharge paper

31:20

here so and unfortunately this one there’s one too and this is just a few little

31:26

samples of it but one two three four five on this one that

31:32

says dead so you can imagine how many more thousands have died

31:39

so the last ones here we have and george said he had to take some

31:44

pauses in between i forgot to ask him i really should have asked but i wondered how long it actually took him from start

31:50

to finish uh when he started this series but he said he had to take breaks he had to go and and re sort of cleanse himself

31:58

rejuvenate himself a little bit because it was it’s very heavy work and when you’re doing all this research and you’re going

32:04

through all this and then you have to you’re internalizing it so that you can uh

32:09

bring it back out to draw what he did here and so um it did take

32:14

some time and it took a lot out of him in a sense because it’s um just the subject matter itself is just

32:22

heart heart-wrenching so these last two the of the the young boys here are of his

32:29

his relatives again this is his uncles uh and they unfortunately died in

32:34

residential school as children so just very tragic um when you think about it

32:40

it just makes you want to well i i have actually cried over it so it is very sad so this

32:46

one here as is called sister nun the problem and and the young girl here crying red tears uh

32:54

down her face so um and all the arrows pointing at the nun so it’s just

32:59

that um sort of come to that realization that um

33:06

it was they thought they were doing good they in a sense they felt that they were

33:11

doing what was right that they were taking these children these savage little beings and they were going to

33:16

make them christians and so you know it’s it’s hard to think of it that way because but that’s what they

33:23

they believe that they were doing the right thing and um sadly there is

33:28

such um um [Music] well it’s it’s uh it’s been a

33:34

perpetuating sort of um what do you call that my brain isn’t thinking here but um

33:40

uh where it’s ongoing that you know sadly these ones like his mother she

33:46

turned to alcohol abuse and that took her life and then um some of you know the the

33:53

children after that also had some some issues and just dealing with all these things uh has

34:00

been uh a hardship but it but we’re we’re all still healing um

34:06

not everyone has gone that down that dark road as as uh george says art saved his life um

34:13

without being creative he doesn’t know where he would have been but art really was something that kept

34:19

him grounded and he was able to express himself and find himself through art so

34:26

we can be happy about that so because we know there’s many many more that um

34:32

indigenous young peoples that have come through that and that healing process and in a creative way so

34:39

um i think that’s kind of it for my oh right i didn’t want to talk about this the spirit house before before we

34:46

leave i’ll talk about that a little bit and then and then we’re gonna be done so this

34:51

when i was talking to george about the exhibit um

34:56

i when i was a little little girl i was about three four years old i was really little i was

35:02

with my dad and we were um we were at a river i don’t remember much i just remember

35:07

being we were up north we lived up north in fort mcmurray actually my dad took a job up north we actually

35:13

had to fly there there was no roads at that time it was a long time ago i know

35:19

don’t think about that but so i remember just this being by the river

35:25

with my dad and i went there was these little houses and i went to investigate of course i dad was busy talking to

35:32

people and i went and i just remember putting my hand in trying to reach because there’s a little hole on the the

35:39

one side and uh and i was trying to reach what was ever in there and i see

35:44

little books i just have these little tiny memories of that and uh

35:49

and so i remember my dad showing me away and telling me to get out of there and and not to bother it but then as i found

35:55

out later that this is actually called a spirit house and it is something that is done um

36:01

indigenous peoples all over the country have different ways of of looking after their their loved ones when they pass

36:07

but this is one example of a people from up north from the anishinaabe people and also in southern

36:15

in the states where they do have these spirit houses um and it is really to protect the body and so this until the

36:22

soul has a chance to uh pass on into the the spirit world and so there is um

36:28

a little little hole on the west side it’s always facing west and so that’s where that

36:34

soul is able to leave through and also that you can leave offerings all

36:39

things like little books or or tools or or trinkets or things like that that that

36:44

person may have liked and so that’s where they were um kept and so this

36:50

because um i talked to george about it and i said i just think it would be really interesting to have something like that

36:56

here because this was a protection this protected um that that being that person

37:03

that was had passed and their bodies were protected here and unfortunately

37:08

the children in residential schools were not protected and so this is kind of that symbolism of giving

37:15

them protection again so this is why uh we decided when i i talked in

37:20

conversation with george that that we would have this in the center this was not part of his exhibition this is

37:26

something i brought to to george and asked him if it was okay and he actually really liked the idea

37:31

and so um we had this one built here in in the

37:36

uh at the at the art gallery here and so this is basically what they look like and

37:42

um that’s kind of it when it comes to that so i just thought it was

37:48

just having that symbolism here of of the protection again for those young ones so but that’s um my tour for today thank

37:57

you all for being here i really appreciate that there is some people in the audience and i was worried about

38:02

that but thank

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