In my ECS 101 class, one of our major projects was to create a representation of how we plan to start our own path towards reconciliation. For my project, I wanted to create it in a way that I will be able to show my students for years to come, while always being able to add to it. I decided to do so by using Minecraft!
Since I decided to use Minecraft, I did not want the fact that I was using a video game to overshadow the assignment itself. Putting meaning behind every material used to create the project made it possible to create a heartfelt, meaningful tribute for the children that didn’t make it home, and for the First Nations and Metis communities still being affected today.
By placing a large, imposing building in the middle of a beautiful field of flowers, I tried to show how imposing the government is on Indigenous people. The orange candles on either side of the stairs, as well as the orange beacons that shine brightly into the air, are to represent and show respect to the survivors of the residential schools. The doors going into the building, made of iron, require a hidden button to push in order to open them; this represents the fact that even though the government made treaties and are attempting to reconcile, it is still significantly more difficult to get through the doors of politics if an individual is not Caucasian. All of the windows in the building are red, representing the spilled blood of the children that never made it home from the residential schools. In addition to the windows being red, they also have dense black concrete behind them to prevent being able to see into the building. The inability to see through the windows represents the blindness that many people have towards what took place within the schools. The stairs leading up to the doors of the legislative building all have shoes placed on them, similar to what we have seen throughout Canada in order to pay respect to the growing number of unmarked graves that are being found to this day.
