Supplied Image Shelley Ewing

By Chris Brown

Presented to Miywasin

215, They Found Us: Local artist’s painting commemorates remains found in Kamloops

Jun 29, 2021 | 4:45 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Medicine Hat artist Shelley Ewing says she became quite emotional when she heard about the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school site in Kamloops in May.

But she says she felt more than just shock and sadness.

“I feel responsible because I feel like I probably didn’t learn what should have learned,” Ewing says. “When you know better you do better and there isn’t anyone who doesn’t know now. I think that it’s a responsibility of all of to open our eyes and open our ears.”

She says people need to educate themselves about Indigenous people’s history in Canada.

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“With education comes understanding and I think the truth comes out. Until we really understand what shoes they walked in it’s very easy to dismiss. I think there’s been a lot of dismissal and assumptions and when you mix dismissal and assumptions together it’s very easy to create a racist attitude towards a whole group of people.”

To commemorate those found in Kamloops, Ewing created a painting, which she calls “215, They Found Us.”

Ewing describes the painting on her Facebook page:

The storyboard moves from the left, representing the beautiful culture and spirit of Indigenous people. The centre shows a young Cree Indian, Thomas Moore who entered Regina residential school in 1910. His image is shown 3 times, one is faded out, representing the attempt to obliterate his Indigenous Identity. They other two images of him show a before and after picture. These comparisons were used by residential schools to show graphic evidence of this premeditated intention. The far right, depict the tears and ongoing trauma, of the families that experienced this. Along the bottom there are 215 small white spirit dots, smaller spatters represent those that still will be found.

Ewing received offers to purchase the painting, but she had other plans.

On Tuesday, she presented it to the Miywasin Friendship Centre, in the hopes it could be a teaching tool.

Executive director Jeanette Hansen says since its inception in 1997 Miywasin has offered cultural awareness to the community and in recent years have sought to educate people on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The painting fits those plans and Hansen was honoured to accept it.

“That’s an important teaching tool, and what’s important is it’s part of the reconciliation and healing that Indigenous community is facing,” she says. “That someone that’s non-Indigenous can see and can interpret what has been happening and feel that pain as well and this is how it came out for Shelley and she wanted to share that with us.”

The painting will be hung in the centre’s cultural room and Hansen says they’re looking at selling prints and cards of it.

She adds the centre is active about raising awareness of Indigenous issues in the community and is looking to host at least one event each month to raise awareness even further.

Contact the Miywasin Friendship Centre at 403-526-0756, miywasincentre.net or on Facebook to learn more about its programs.

You can visit Ewing’s Facebook page to learn more about her art.