Art by John McDonald
"If Memory Serves:
A Survivor’s Recollection of His Residential School Experiences"-2024
Nêhiyawak-Métis multidisciplinary writer and artist John Brady McDonald is a survivor of the Residential School system. From the age of four to the age of eight, from 1984 to 1989, he lived at the Prince Albert Indian Student Residence, one of the last Residential Schools in Canada to operate. His parents were both Residential School Survivors as well.
This series of paintings, created through an Indigenous Peoples Art and Artists – Intermediate grant through SK Arts, is a look into some of John’s core memories of his experiences in Residential School.
Wanting to avoid overly beautifying or glorifying these memories, John made the decision not to create visually appealing, softened versions of this memories. Instead, he chose to paint the actual raw, unedited preliminary sketches he created as he allowed a few of his memories to come to the surface, inspired by the 19th Century Plains Indigenous practice of Ledger Art.
These paintings will be donated to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation for education and posterity.
(Photo credits Tina Pelletier- Indigenous Creature Communications)
This series of paintings, created through an Indigenous Peoples Art and Artists – Intermediate grant through SK Arts, is a look into some of John’s core memories of his experiences in Residential School.
Wanting to avoid overly beautifying or glorifying these memories, John made the decision not to create visually appealing, softened versions of this memories. Instead, he chose to paint the actual raw, unedited preliminary sketches he created as he allowed a few of his memories to come to the surface, inspired by the 19th Century Plains Indigenous practice of Ledger Art.
These paintings will be donated to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation for education and posterity.
(Photo credits Tina Pelletier- Indigenous Creature Communications)