Bringing the Witness Blanket to a global audience

February 10, 2022 - John Threlfall

The Witness Blanket is displayed in panoramic panels in the glass windows at the Frankfurt book fair at night. — Carey Newman’s Witness Blanket is projected onto a building façade in Frankfurt’s Romberg Plaza in October 2021. Image provided courtesy of Newman.

As a multi-disciplinary Kwakwak’awakw and Coast Salish artist, Carey Newman (Hayalthkin’geme) wears many hats: master carver, filmmaker, author, public speaker and, in his new role in the University of Victoria’s Department of Visual Arts, he is the inaugural Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices at UVic. But he’s also the child of a residential school survivor—a hard truth that inspired the creation of his Witness Blanket, a large-scale art installation which stands as a national monument recognizing the atrocities of the Indian residential school era, honouring the children and symbolizing ongoing reconciliation.

A message of truth and reconciliation

Recently appointed as the first Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices, Newman took his message of truth and reconciliation to an international audience in October 2021 when the Witness Blanket was featured as part of Canada’s week-long “Guest of Honour” cultural programming at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

As well as having images of the Witness Blanket projected on a building façade in Frankfurt’s Romberg Plaza, Newman hosted a screening of his documentary, Picking Up the Pieces: The Making of the Witness Blanket, at the Frankfurt Film Institute.

Shifting perspectives

Seeing an image of the Witness Blanket projected upon a building larger than life—30 feet by 100 feet—and having the opportunity to screen the documentary there and have a question-and-answer period afterwards with people from Canada and Germany…those are moments I’ll carry with me for a long time, and hopefully having these conversations internationally will play a role in helping us to see ourselves differently here at home.

—Kwakwaka’wakw artist Carey Newman (Hayalthkin’geme), the inaugural Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices at UVic

As the largest gathering of publishing industry professionals in the world, the Frankfurter Buchmesse was an ideal opportunity for Newman to showcase not only the various incarnations of the Witness Blanket—including the documentary and the accompanying book, Picking Up the Pieces: Residential School Memories and the Making of the Witness Blanket by Orca Book Publishing—but to also engage in conversations around the importance of the work.

Carey Newman Witness Blanket Frankfurt Book Fair 2 — Carey Newman with a projection of his Witness Blanket on a building façade in Frankfurt’s Romberg Plaza in October 2021. Image provided courtesy of Newman.

“The way that Germany as a country approaches their history of genocide is very present, very forward. As Canadians, we have something to learn from that,” Newman says.

“We often wonder, ‘When can we move forward?’—there seems to be a rush to get to the ‘reconciliation’ part of the truth-and-reconciliation process, but the ongoing confirmation of unmarked graves at residential schools is a reminder that we are still firmly in the process of uncovering the ‘truth’ of genocide in Canada.”