Hey all,
As you may be aware, newspapers (especially in the online world) tend to move on and dump old material. Here’s saving this in the aftermath:
Mural at LRT station offensive, rider says
The late Bishop Grandin’s links to residential schools, colonialism don’t merit celebration
I have a secret to admit: I love the LRT. I know some people hate it, complaining endlessly about how, in bigger cities, the subways never come late, but I personally love the feeling of crossing over the North Saskatchewan River in the LRT and seeing our beautiful city from the river valley. Recently, however, I had to get off at Grandin/Government Centre station to run an errand, and my love affair with the LRT hit a major road bump.
Having just left a class recounting the impacts of the residential schooling system on aboriginal people in Alberta, I was horrified at seeing the mural in Grandin station. Called the Bishop Vital Grandin Mural, the artwork is a celebration of residential schooling and aboriginal displacement and a historical narrative of colonialism and conversion.
Bishop Grandin was an early Catholic pioneer who arrived in Canada in 1854. He was, indeed, a seminal figure in Alberta history, but one of his most significant “contributions” was as an overseer of numerous residential schools.
To quote from a study by the University of Toronto, during the later part of the 19th century, Grandin became convinced that “attempts to civilize and evangelize native adults would have negligible results” and it would be more prudent instead to “wean children from their native lifestyle.” Thus, it was because of Grandin’s work that schools such as St. Joseph’s at Dunbow near Calgary were set up. Today, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, working to alleviate the pain and suffering caused by the residential school system, recognizes many of Grandin’s “civilizing projects,” such as St. Joseph’s, as residential schools, where Blackfoot children were taken away from their families and forced into an abusive system.
In a bizarre twist, though, the mural at Grandin/ Government Centre, far from decrying that history, seems to revel in it. On the accompanying plaque, which includes the signature of the City of Edmonton, it claims Grandin was a pioneer, upon whose arrival “the West was a vast wilderness.” That would make sense, if the aboriginal people who had been living in Alberta for centuries before Grandin arrived were just a part of a background “wilderness” of assorted animals; indeed, according to the mural, the aboriginal people had no civilization of their own and had to thus be civilized.
In the mural, Grandin looks ahead, staring bravely into the future. Beside him, a woman wearing a crucifix holds an aboriginal baby, apparently carrying the infant away from its family. In the background, we see what is presumably the family, faceless, being escorted by another missionary to train stations.
Some might say I am misinterpreting the painting. That is possible. But here are the cold, undeniable facts: Grandin helped operate residential schools. In the painting, Grandin’s female associate holds an aboriginal child, separated from family. The mural is supposed to be a celebration of this history. The mural is placed in an incredibly important place; the station is the centre for those going back and forth from the Alberta legislature. In a sense, this is a view that is seen as legitimate by the Government of Alberta and by the city. Am I the only one who feels nauseated by this?
The residential school system might be dead, but the Grandin mural continues to sing its praises in the heart of Edmonton.
Mustafa Farooq is a third-year political science honours student at the University of Alberta.
New murals celebrating First Nations go up at Grandin station
CBC News Posted: Mar 18, 2014 6:53 PM MT Last Updated: Mar 19, 2014 7:28 AM MT
New artwork is going up this week at the Grandin LRT station to counter a mural that aboriginal people find offensive for how it depicts residential schools run by the Roman Catholic Church.
The original mural pays tribute to Vital Grandin, the first bishop of St. Albert.
Artist Aaron Paquette stands in front of one of his new murals now being installed at the Grandin LRT station. (CBC )
One of the panels shows a nun carrying an aboriginal child, which critics say glosses over the sexual and physical abuse, as well as the cultural assimilation, that went on at church-run residential schools.
When she painted the mural 25 years ago, artist Sylvie Nadeau didn’t know the troubled history, but she does now.
“I understand now that I know the story,” she said. “I know the history of the residential school and I see what they see.”
Despite the criticism, the mural will not be taken down. Instead, new pieces created by Nadeau and First Nations artist Aaron Paquette will be installed beside and across from the original artwork.
Nadeau’s new works show the little boy from the old mural growing up to be a powerful young man. At the other end, a young aboriginal woman is dancing and smiling.
Paquette’s pieces are bold and colourful celebrations of aboriginal culture with images of a wolf, bear, raven, thunderbird and a white buffalo, which represents renewal and healing.
“What I hope comes through is that I really created a work of love in order to answer the pain that people might feel about all of these issues,” he said.
The official unveiling is scheduled to take place on Friday to coincide with when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission holds hearings in Edmonton at the end of March.
Mustafa Farooq 