Storage container turned into symbol of truth and reconciliation by Indigenous artist

A beautiful orange leaf on a storage container was painted by an Indigenous artist in Kahnawake – west of Montreal. It’s serving as a landmark ahead of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day – with the message of Every Child Matters across the top.

“There are some key icons that are often utilized to represent Orange Shirt Day. I just tried to encapsulate a lot of those. As you can see, there is an orange shirt incorporated to get the message across, and this is after all about the children,” explained Iohserontie Rice, the artist behind the project.

“You see a young lady on there, she represents the children. We also have a feather, in an upsweeping motion, to show that things are going up from here. The handprint is often utilized to represent Orange Shirt Day, and we have the smaller hand inside the bigger to show the generational thing.” said Rice.

Brooklyn Joseph, with Kahnawà:ke Shakotiia’takehnhas Community Services, says part of the goal of the project was to showcase Indigenous artists.

“We did a call out for artists. We wanted to do something big for Orange Shirt Day or Truth and Reconciliation Day,” explained Joseph.

“Art is really something that is healing as well and our whole mission is about healing the community and creating healthy families within the community.

“We’re definitely going to do other collaborative community pieces because after doing this one you just realized there’s a need for it. So many people came out and shared their feelings about the art as well and we realized how really healing it was.

“My grandparents have been affected by this, as well as everybody else’s, and to have the people driving through in a day to day basis and stopping me while I’m painting and just kind of talking about how beautiful it is to have this, it was a very wholesome feeling,” said Rice.

“This case in particular, I think it was important to have an Indigenous artist to really hit the message across for the Indigenous people.”