Victoria School of the Arts marked National Aboriginal Day by unveiling an art project intended to cover up paintings of the school’s former team logo.
“This will help teach the students when they go through their grades learning about aboriginal culture,” student Tianah Auger said. “They’ll be able to come here and learn what it is to be aboriginal.”
The school’s sports teams used to be known as the Redmen. In 2011, that name and logo were dropped from all teams – deemed to be culturally insensitive. However, paintings of two chiefs heads remained on the gymnasium walls.
“Then we had the legacy of these logos staring back at us,” Aboriginal Studies teacher, Harley Morris, said.
READ MORE: Saskatoon school board vote to change Redmen team name, logo
During the school ceremony, student speakers called the old images a “stereotypical view of cultural identity,” “wrong” and “offensive.”
“In my world, when I grew up, it was OK to do that,” artist and project consultant, Dayone Carlson, said. “Inside, it bothered you, but you weren’t really allowed to say anything.”
“So to come and help cover it up is just really amazing. I’m honoured to be a part of it.”
“In my lifetime, I watched that become not OK and be broken down,” Carlson said. “To be part of something like that, it hits me right here,” he said, touching his heart.
READ MORE: Western Canada High School retires controversial team name
This year, the school’s Aboriginal Studies class designed and painted two murals with the help of local artists.
Tuesday, the art was unveiled. It is a collection of imagery that represents voices and perspectives of indigenous peoples, places and their past, present and future.
“The mural, for years and years to come, is hopefully going to trigger conversations so students from K-12 can come and look at the mural and talk about it,” Morris said.
These new murals will cover the old logos and will be hung professionally over the summer.
“It feels really nice,” Auger said.