Our current exhibition of The Witness Blanket will be at Woodland Cultural Centre until March 27, 2021. Unfortunately, our galleries are still closed and it saddens us that our visitors will not be able to see the installation in person before then. Fortunately, however, our team has been working hard to gather educational resources to complement our current exhibition.
Our Witness Blanket Educational Resource is Now Available to Download!
“The blanket is a universal symbol of protection. For many of us, it identifies who we are and where we’re from – we wear them in ceremony and give them as gifts. Blankets protect our young and comfort our elders.”
Inspired by a woven blanket, the Witness Blanket is a large scale art installation, made out of hundreds of items reclaimed from Residential Schools, churches, government buildings and traditional and cultural structures including Friendship Centres, band offices, and treatment centres and universities, from across Canada. The Witness Blanket stands as a national monument to recognize the atrocities of the Indian Residential School era, honour the children, and symbolize ongoing reconciliation.
The items included in the Witness Blanket provide a point of departure and bear witness to the truth. The team travelled over 200,000 kilometres, visited 77 communities, met over 10,000 people and gathered over 889 pieces, inclusive of 161 photos, shoes, bowls dolls, and skates to name a few. The finished work is 12 metres long and constructed with 13 panels with a total weight of over 2 tons. Inherently, the items contain stories from Survivors and Intergenerational Survivors.
Download Educational PDF Here
