CANORA, SASK.- As the new Indigenous Community Worker at Canora Composite School and Canora Junior Elementary School, Darcie Park is utilizing her artistic talents to fulfil her responsibility “to provide support and help students from all cultures to feel safe.”
Prior to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day- Every Child Matters on Sept. 30, Park, with the help of students and local volunteers, created art projects that highlight the importance of reconciliation.
Upon entering the CCS front door, visitors see a tree that’s unlike anything found in nature. For the leaves, Park asked students to cut around their hands on orange paper, which is of course, the colour associated with “Every Child Matters” and also with fall. On the leaves, students wrote some of their favourite positive words or phrases. Those included “trusted,” “caring” and “perseverance.”
On a hallway bulletin board at CCS, Park found another creative way to emphasize that every child matters. She has a series of orange shirts, along with different lengths and thicknesses of hair for the back of each shirt as a reminder of the indigenous individuals, many of them children, who were taken to residential schools and forced to get hair cuts.
“The different lengths of hair are a reminder that some were at a very young age with short hair, and others were older and had already grown their hair longer.”
One of Park’s projects was easily large enough to mount on the outside of CCS, a 14-foot high dreamcatcher. It’s designed to let the good dreams pass through the middle, while the “spider web” around the outside traps all the bad dreams and nightmares.
“I spent three hours just to weave it out of 350 feet of polyester rope.”
Park said she is grateful for all the help she received from local residents with this ambitious project.
“Dustin Kortmeyer gave me the trampoline for the outside ring. Sydney Bobick did the welding. Dayne Babchishin grinded the welding down and also provided me with tools to clean the ring. Jocelyn Maddaford-Collingridge helped with the spray painting as well as the weaving.”
Park said the dreamcatcher is there to remind anyone who sees it while driving past CCS on Eighth Avenue that, “we’re on aboriginal land and the indigenous people are still here.”
According to information from Canada.ca, “The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day are both observed annually on Sept. 30, and they are dedicated to honouring Residential School Survivors, their families, and communities, and to recognize the lasting impacts of Canada’s Residential School system. These commemorations provide an opportunity to deepen Canada’s understanding of the intergenerational effects of residential schools and to reflect on their enduring legacy as part of the ongoing journey toward truth, healing, and reconciliation.
On Sept. 30, Canadians are encouraged to wear orange in honour of Residential School Survivors and their families, and in remembrance of the children who never returned home.”
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