Exhibition: We Are All One
Opened October 2014: Alberni Valley Museum
We Are All One: Residential School Children's Art
The exhibit comprises illustrations and paintings by young students who attended the Alberni Residential School and were instructed by local artist and teacher Robert Aller. The arts pieces act as a lens into the culture and identity of the children who attended this school. They reflect the inner voice of the student, a voice that would re-appear years later when as adults, the paintings would act as points of memory and as catalysts to renew their quest to heal and reconnect. The paintings are provided by the University of Victoria's Legacy Gallery and the exhibit has been curated by Dr. Andrea Walsh, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Uvic. For Dr. Walsh "All the paintings contain hope. The hope of the child, who in laying her paint-filled brush down on paper, felt confident that her ideas and feelings would be accepted, and the hope of the Survivor who has shared his/her childhood in the name of healing and reconciliation."