HCE 9- English write

  Assimilation Vs. Inclusivity

This powerful image makes the viewer feel confused at first. You break down the image and see a ratio of grey and gloomy children who appear to be of indigenous heritage and on the right side of the image a smaller number of indigenous people that are in colour. Seeing the grey children made me feel sad they do not appear to be sad; they appear to be emotionless. they are not smiling, and they are not crying they look like dolls with drawn on features. I see when I look at this image, children of residential schools. I am not sure if the people in colour are survivors, what their future could have looked like before residential schools, or if it is a small portion of indigenous people that were not affected directly by the schools. They appear to be happy when they are in colour and some wearing traditional cultural clothing. I think the colours play a major role, the people in colour to me represent happiness, culture, peace, and individuality. They are also drawn or painted with different colours which represents individuality and multiple cultures in my opinion. There are a lot fewer coloured people than there are black and white. I think the black and white represents every indigenous person directly effected by residential schools and how they were whitewashed into all being the same. They all have similar uniform type clothing, short hair which they most likely were forced to cut, and the same facial expressions. I think the grey colours represent being stripped of your culture, trauma, fear, and all the effects of the residential schools. I think the image is saying that out of an army of indigenous peoples that went through the residential schools what little culture remains. I found that the most significant symbol is braiding the colourful people wear in their hair. In the residential schools, the children were forced into cutting off their long braids. The braiding represents strength, individuality, and mean a lot to indigenous people.  Another significant symbol I found was the large feather that the child wearing purple was holding in her hand, the feather can mean many things but usually symbolizes trust, honor, strength, wisdom, power, and freedom. Seeing so many symbols and cultural pieces that the coloured people are holding shows how much was taken away from the children in residential schools who were holding nothing and wearing no cultural clothing in the picture, just a uniform, and short hair. The image was very well designed and had me looking at each person and intrigued me. I could see the fear and trauma on one half of the page, and the happiness, individuality, and culture on the other side of the page. I enjoyed analyzing this image and was impressed by how interesting this activity would be. I hope to get to appreciate and analyze more indigenous art and learn more about each culture.