Pamela Hayward sells her art at a National Indigenous Peoples Day event on June 21, 2022. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

hobby to healing

Indigenous painter hopes art helps residential school survivors and others heal

Jun 22, 2022 | 3:33 PM

An Indigenous woman stood patiently at a table on Tuesday, hoping to sell more of her artwork.

Painting was something Pamela Hayward, who is of Métis and Cree (Chipewyan) heritage, took up only two years ago.

Her exquisite paintings were up for sale at a National Indigenous Peoples Day event hosted by Shining Mountains Living Community Services.

“My daughter has some health concerns, and I had started this just to dabble and relieve some stress, but it’s turned into something more,” she says. “In June last year, I did a series of 10 paintings as soon as the news broke about all the residential school stuff in Kamloops. I had started getting these images in my head and I had to paint them.”

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One, she explains, combines imagery in remembrance of both residential school survivors, and Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).

Upon searching, she hadn’t been able to find an image that had been created mingling the two issues.

“Actually, I can’t really say much about how I’m feeling when I paint. I tend to zone out, and especially with one I did with a dreamcatcher, I just sat down, started painting, and I have no idea how long it took me, but I do it all freehand,” says Hayward, a special needs aide at Red Deer’s Parkland School for Special Needs Children Education.

“I have found that my art resonates mostly with women, and most people who’ve bought my stuff, they’re a survivor, and so it means something to them. They feel something. For me to help give them that closure is everything.”

Last year, Hayward raised money through sales of her art for Parkland School, with some matching dollars coming from the Shaw Birdies for Kids program.

Originally from Yellowknife, she shared that she had a friend who was killed about four years ago, who would be counted under the MMIWG tragedy.

“A lot of my family up north were at one point in a residential school, including my mother. So I have heard a lot of stories,” she says, though she can’t share them.

“I just want my art to help others with healing. For others, I hope it makes them smile, and I like knowing my artwork is all over the place.”

To follow Hayward and check out her art, visit PDH Art on Facebook or ArtByPamH on Instagram.

READ MORE: National Indigenous Peoples Day and annual pow wow mark important week for Red Deerians and local Indigenous community