Brandon teepee art project celebrates strength, resilience during Truth and Reconciliation Week

Weaving together truth, reconciliation and healing, community members in Brandon created a commemorative teepee Saturday. 

The art project for the upcoming Truth and Reconciliation Week in the southwestern Manitoba city was designed by Canupawakpa Dakota Nation visual artist Jessie Jannuska. 

"The piece is called Coming Together, and I really hope that people do come together when they look at this teepee and they feel strength and resilience, and just feel honoured," Jannuska said.

The teepee will be displayed at Brandon's Riverbank Discovery Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Week, which officially begins Monday and leads up to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30, also known as Orange Shirt Day.

In Brandon, there will be events at the Discovery Centre every day from Tuesday to Sunday.

The teepee will be used by the Brandon Friendship Centre's Sixties Scoop support program to share teachings, promote healing and encourage reconciliation, said program co-ordinator Julia Stoneman.

During what's referred to as the Sixties Scoop — which actually began in the early 1950s into continued into the early 1990s — child welfare authorities took thousands of Indigenous children from their families and communities, and placed them with non-Indigenous foster or adoptive parents.

Stoneman described it as a continuation of the residential school system.

The message behind Coming Together is a critical part of truth and reconciliation, Stoneman said, because it encourages people to join in learning the stories, history and experiences of people affected by residential schools, the Sixties Scoop and other colonial traumas. 

Hearing the experiences of survivors adds a human face to that history, she said, making reconciliation a personal experience for people.

Jannuska hopes that people who see the art project will feel the strength and resilience of Indigenous people in Canada. 

"You can't just keep people in the dark.… You need to let people speak about their truth," Jannuska said.

"I think these families are really sad. They are estranged. They want their children back, they want the connectivity, they want the love back." 

Events like the teepee community art project serve as a way to honour and acknowledge their experiences, she said, while strengthening cultural identity and self-love.