New perspective needed on Canada 150: local artist

One of two artists behind an exhibit on until July 4 at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre says her work reflects a different perspective on the hoopla that is Canada 150.

Oh Canada: Reflections of my Reconciliation showcases the artwork Andrea Lacoursiere, a Red Deer woman with non-Indigenous roots.

She says reconciliation has become a theme in her life.

“So here we are at this crux, 2017, and we’re supposed to have big celebrations for Canada 150 and I just couldn’t do it. It’s not that I’m not feeling patriotic and nationalism and pride and all that stuff, but it feels false to have a big party,” she says. “We should actually be able to look back at all of our history, all of the 150 years we have as a nation, see what we’ve actually done in that time and make a plan to move forward, for resiliency as an entire nation.”

Lacoursiere says she worked through her desire for reconciliation by depicting Alberta’s national parks.

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“First Nations people have used what are now the national parks for millennia as places of practicing their spirituality. When the settlers came, we saw it as an opportunity to make money because it’s beautiful. It’s a really interesting dichotomy,” she says. “I really wanted to just make my own peace with what my reconciliation is on our 150th anniversary of being a nation and that just all culminates into the land that we are on.”

She adds we wouldn’t be celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday if it weren’t for the land, therefore that land should be shown the respect it deserves.

Echo Armstrong, a local lyme disease patient of Métis heritage, also contributed to the exhibit. She admits while she doesn’t necessarily disagree with the views of her colleague, the motivation behind her pieces is different as it pertains to this exhibit.

“In 2008 I was bitten by a tick and became chronically ill, but because of controversy and lack of knowledge, I was unable to be diagnosed or receive treatment until 2015 when I was diagnosed with Lyme disease,” she says in her artist statement. “As a Métis person, my spirituality is deeply rooted in my connection to nature. During this time, I had limited mobility and cognitive skills due to this — I spent more and more time inside, but still wanted to ‘connect with the land’ so I started to paint the things in nature that fascinated me.”

Armstrong also finds irony in the fact that the creature which has caused her a great deal of pain was no bigger than a poppy seed, as opposed to the animals most are afraid of such as wolves and bears.

“I just love nature, love everything about it. I’m in awe of what’s so exotic in Canada and Alberta that we pass over.”