Sudbury high school students create two Indigenous murals
Some new wall art was unveiled at a Greater Sudbury area high school Thursday to help celebrate National Indigenous History Month.
Around 150 students at École secondaire Hanmer took part in a project to create two Indigenous murals.
Indigenous mural made by students at Ecole secondaire Hanmer representing the future. June 1/23 (Alana Everson/CTV Northern Ontario)
Grade 10 student Jessica Gour calls the experience invaluable.
"I gained a lot of knowledge about Indigenous cultures and my grandma as Indigenous, but, unfortunately, she passed away before I could even learn a lot about the culture," Gour said.
"So this really brought out the Indigenous part in me and it made me experience things that I never would have experienced if I did not do this project."
A teacher who oversees inclusion and diversity at the school, Natalie Frappier, said the students came up with the concept after attending the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation event in Bell Park last September.
"We wanted a big project where we could really reflect on the past and the future and what the students and the staff could do to have a change," Frappier said.
- Download our app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
Artist Jessica Somers also helped students incorporate woodland art into the murals.
"The students were involved right from the beginning having that teaching creating the artwork and then teamwork and collaboration throughout the whole process," Somers said.
Stéphane Paquette, a well-known local francophone musician and actor, works as a cultural facilitator for Indigenous education for the Conseil scolaire du Grand Nord school board.
"Everyone in the school had a presentation on the importance and what the woodlands art style is. And then the artist in question, Jessica Somers, came in and worked with the students and made sure that the concept came from the students," Paquette said.
"The paint stokes and everything came from the students also."
The school's principal, Patrick Venne, was impressed with the end result.
"It's a project that I hope students take away that it's important to not forget the past, but at the same time too, you know, plan for the future to see what we can do differently," Venne said.
The murals that represent the past and future hang in the hallway outside of the school's history classroom.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Government proposes new policy for federally regulated employees to disconnect from work
In their 2024 budget, the federal government wants to amend the Canada Labour Code, so employers in federally regulated sectors will eliminate work-related communication with employees outside of scheduled hours. If implemented, this would affect roughly 500,000 employees across the country.