Witness Blanket Travelling Exhibit
Hosted at Stelly's Secondary School April 8th 2024 - May 3rd, 2024
To book please use the District Booking Calendar - book.saanichschools.ca
Use the drop-down menu at the top of the page to navigate to the SBO Calendar - D030
Inspired by a woven blanket, the Witness Blanket is a large-scale work of art. It contains hundreds of items reclaimed from residential schools, churches, government buildings and traditional and cultural structures from across Canada.
Here, you can explore the items and stories carried by the Witness Blanket. They are accompanied by the voices of Survivors who talk about the experience of being forced into residential schools. Their generous and insightful stories convey the reality of anti-Indigenous racism, colonialism and genocide. They reveal the ongoing harms caused by Canada’s residential school system.
Before brining your classes to view the witness Blanket please be sure to go over the provided materials on The Witness Blanket Website and be sure to go over the teacher guide. See links Below
This film follows the journey of making the Witness Blanket - a national monument that commemorates the experiences of residential school survivors across Canada.
Synopsis:
Inspired to know more about his father's time at residential school, artist Carey Newman created the Witness Blanket - a national monument that commemorates the experiences of residential school survivors. The blanket is constructed from hundreds of everyday items collected from residential schools, churches, government buildings and cultural structures across Canada. Each object has a story to tell, each survivor has something to say. Narrated by the artist, this film weaves together those stories with his personal journey, examining how art can open our hearts to the pain of truth and the beauty of resiliency.
