Journey to Reconciliation Project

In ESC 101 class in the fall 2020 semester, students were required to create an aesthetic piece based on our journey towards what reconciliation represented. As well as, our knowledge surrounding the Indigenous people and what information we have gathered throughout the class and our personal education journey. For my project, I decided to create a painting that included important words surrounding reconciliation for me, as well as important colours highlighting the indigenous people of Canada.

My Explanation of the Aesthetic Piece;

“This course enlightened me on some ideas and subjects that I have not thought about previously, such as my involvement in the reconciliation journey. My aesthetic piece entails the concept that reconciliation will take time. This is displayed by an alternative painting of a black hole, different colours are going down into the middle, in which the middle is white. Going into the white hole are words describing what the journey of reconciliation is to me, and some words that resonate with what we, as a society, have to do to have reconciliation fulfilled. The colours near the center have meaning as well. The colours near the middle is a symbol for the land, as well as the First Nation Medicine wheel. The green and blue rings are closer to the center as a representation that, to get fully in the white space, which is representing true reconciliation, we have to accept that the land is theirs and honour their land. The idea that the white center is reconciliation is carried through the art piece as the words are being drawn to the center which eludes to the fact that these words have to be put into action. Alongside this, the colour of the outside where it’s black and slowly progressing to white shows that it is a gradual process and that we can come out of the dark into the light. The four colours of the medicine wheel are also integrated into this art piece as the medicine wheel was a monumental aspect of learning about the First Nations culture for me in Elementary school. The medicine wheel was something that always resonated with me which is why I wanted to include the four colours of the wheel, which are black, white, yellow and red. The medicine wheel represents healing, which as a country, I think we all need to do. The words going into the center represent reconciliation in the past, as well as what can be done for the future. These words struck out at me when I was finding sources for this assignment. While researching I would write down words that reflected the idea of reconciliation to me, and filtered through them and picked a few that had the greatest impact on me.”