I chose to do the artwork on something that has been weighing on me heavily for the past few years. I'm glad I got this opportunity to say, I am ashamed to be a Canadian citizen. Though I realize my privilege in this country I will not stand for the poor representation of our indigenous community. I will not stand for our government flying "Flags at half mass" in honour of the 215 indigenous children found dead. Another meaningless gesture. I would like to point out in 2008 the government gave an apology for the residential schools and in 2010 the same person Steven Harper, the Former Prime Minister of Canada, had a lack of integrity to say "Canada has no history of colonialism. Our prime minister Justine Trudeau talks about nation-to-nation relations and YET our government still has indigenous communities WITHOUT CLEAN DRINKING WATER. Also the underfunded inquiry to missing and murdered indigenous women and girls is disgusting... Our Premier in Quebec refuses to Acknowledge systemic Racism despite indigenous women dying in his hospitals and lastly, WE HAVE INDIGENOUS CHILDREN BEING FORCEFULLY WITH IUDs. This is a genocide, we need to wake up and fight back. I'm sick and tired of these issues being dismissed and not treated seriously especially by kids my age who have nothing better to do than occupy themself with pointless activities and pity themselves when they are safe at home.
This piece includes articles about everything I touched on, drawings of indigenous people as well as a little boy drinking the poisoned water. Includes Red hands that is a symbolic representation of violence that affects indigenous women . It represents my anger and hurt and how I view the situation being handled. It is right in front of us as we sit and view it from an out-of-touch perspective.