A mural celebrating the Black Lives Matter movement now sits permanently on the walls of Sackville High, and students say it’s already creating change.
“I remember the first time I walked by the mural and I had stopped and stared for a minute — I felt a little choked up,” said 18-year-old Ryan Symonds, an African Nova Scotian student at the school.
Symonds grew up in a predominantly white community in Lower Sackville, N.S., and she says she was blown away by her classmates who took this initiative.
The mural was created by Emma Bruce and Autumn Faulkner, with help from the African Nova Scotian support worker Keith Tasco.
Bruce pitched the idea to her grade 12 art teacher back in October and she says the teacher didn’t hesitate a second before approving the project. Soon after, support from other staff in the school came too.
“Every time we were working on it, a bunch of staff would come by and say how grateful they were to have it put in our school,” Bruce said.
Although Bruce is white, she says Black Lives Matter is a movement that means a lot to her and her family.
“My brother is half-Black and then my dad’s stepdad is Black, so I see first-hand how they’re treated,” she said.
Bruce said many students at the school came to support her project. She said they were posting photos of the mural to social media, “saying it’s actually making a change, and making them feel more appreciated in the school.”
That’s exactly what Bruce said she was hoping to achieve. “I was just hoping to make them feel heard and noticed, and that they weren’t alone.”
Symonds said ideas around BLM were taboo while she was growing up in a white community.
“To see something going on like that, especially two white students taking the initiative… it really touched my heart,” Symonds said.
“I walked past it every day as they continuously added more names and then more colours — and then then asked for my handprint. It was overwhelmingly comforting.”
The mural includes the names of Black folks that lost their lives to police brutality and the violence of white people, from 1996 to 2020, including George Floyd whose death sparked the BLM movement worldwide.
It also includes the hand prints of all African Nova Scotian women at the school, students and faculty included, in solidarity with “Am I Next?” — a movement in South Africa that rose after the sexual assault and death of 19-year-old Uyinene Mrwetyana.
“Normally this stuff is just pushed under the rug, we don’t talk about it,” Symonds said.
Symonds had experienced a racist incident at school earlier this year, and she said she was surprised with the amount of support she received from the school’s staff.
“At Sackville High, the teachers, they go above and beyond to educate their students… (the principal) was very supportive, he listened to what I said and he did what needed to be done,” she said.
“To know that someone is in your corner and looking out for you and wanting to make your school environment a safe environment for you to learn and feel comfortable, and be happy in your skin — it means a lot.”
One of those people, Symonds said, is Tasco.
“If I could be half the person Keith is, I would be set for life,” Symonds said.
“He has given me space to be myself, space to cry, to rant. He’s introduced me to more students that look like me and experience the same things as me.”
Symonds said the fact that the mural will be a the school for years to come is a great feeling, “that everything that happened this past year is documented on the walls of our school,” she said.
“Kids will be forced to educate themselves and understand why that’s there. Moving forward, ignorance won’t be a thing.”