Carving a better community: How this Indigenous artist is using his skills to help others

Chi Mokaman is focused on what is, not what was. 

"Truth and reconciliation is about what we do today. And what we do in the future," he said, sitting in the Saint John Tool Library where he spends his days creating art that will uplift his community.

"It's about what we do collectively and to make a difference in our community, all for the next generation. That's what reconciliation is."

But that's not the only thing truth and reconciliation can mean, he added.

"I respect deeply what truth and reconciliation is for other people. I know it's a different reality for other people … I'm not here to speak for anybody but myself." 

Mokaman is a Mi'kmaw wood-carving artist born in New Glasgow, N.S.

After arriving in Saint John last year, he's been carving works that will be raffled off as part of the tool library's Reconciliation in Action program, which will support the Saint John Community Food Basket and First Steps, a transitional house for mothers aged 16 to 29 in need of shelter and support.

"When I know I'm supposed to speak of something, I do that through carving. And the relatives come and help me tell that story," Mokaman said. 

Mokaman hasn't always been connected to the culture of his community. 

"I walked in a very different way. I walked with addictions, I walked with a lot of struggle," he said. "And it took a lot of years to heal. And the carving was one of the medicines that I was privileged to be given by the Creator to help me heal."

He said the community he grew up in didn't connect him to his identity. 

"There was no culture. There was just abuse, more abuse. And none of that existed. You had generations where people were deeply wounded. And the consequences of being wounded are you harm yourself and other people." 

Mokaman said he sees the harm he did to himself as the most detrimental. 

"I've had bad things happen and as most people on the earth have. I'm not unique. But it's what I did to myself."