This painting represents how imposing blue quills has been on my family. There is a lot of intergenerational trauma because of it. This place caused a lot of physical, emotional and spiritual pain for my family. My dad and all his siblings attended there. My mosom (grandfather) and his siblings attended there. My Chapan, great grandfather he was fortunate enough to not have to go to residential school. However he did have the experience of losing his father at a young age, when his father was murdered during the 1885 northwest rebellion . (That’s another story)

This painting came to me one night while I was thinking about the impact that residential school had on my family.

The flowers are growing over the photos and bringing healing and change. The photo of blue quills is large because it had a huge impact. It’s not covered because it will never go away.

The smudge and eagle feather are clearing away the pain through reconnection to culture.

The photos are of my dad and his siblings. Each one of the flowers represents someone in my family. The purple ones are my dad and his siblings. The yellow ones represent myself and my siblings that’s why there are 5 of them. The orange ones are my parents grandchildren. The pink dots represent all of my cousins. The berries represent change and new growth. The sage also represents growth through healing. The background colours are there because of how this painting came to me.