A photo of Leighton Art Centre sitting on top of a hill overlooking 80 acres of foothills, within Treaty 7 territory.
The Leighton Art Centre is a historic landmark just outside of southwest Calgary, filled with art, history, and a beautiful landscape. I worked with Amanda MacKay, the director of Communications at Leighton Art Centre in producing content with Leighton Art Centre, and she told me about the organization beginning to “make efforts in the area of reconciliation”.
Producing a land acknowledgement video and an interview with Jo-Mary, the Truth and Reconciliation Advisor for Leighton Art Centre will hopefully contribute to these efforts. The Leighton Art Centre is home to 80 acres of beautiful land, recognizing and appreciating this land in the audio-visual medium is the goal of our media content.
Land Acknowledgements
Land acknowledgements are an important step toward reconciliation because they contribute to building respectful relationships. Land acknowledgements are an act of recognition that First Nations are the original peoples of Canada, and that non-Indigenous Canadians are living and working on land that is rightfully Indigenous. This is one small way non-Indigenous Canadians can make efforts in line with the goals set out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada was created to investigate and inform Canadians about the history of residential schools in Canada. The history of this country is linked to the colonial destruction of Indigenous culture and rights. This destruction is a result of the residential school system created and operated by the federal government. The trauma and inequity inflicted on Indigenous Canadians has lasting impacts that Non-Indigenous Canadians must understand and work toward healing. In 2015, the TRC released 94 Calls to Action that outline the steps necessary for beginning to restore the relationship between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Canadians.
Guiding Principles of Truth and Reconciliation
The Calls to Action are based on a number of guiding principles including:
- First Nations are the original peoples of Canada, and their human rights must be recognized and respected.
- Reconciliation is a process of healing; this process includes truth-sharing and acknowledging past harms.
- All Canadians have a responsibility for building and maintaining respectful relationships.
Personal Reflection
I was given the opportunity to work with Truth and Reconciliation Advisor for Leighton Art Centre; Jo-Mary Crowchild. I interviewed them about their position at Leighton Art Centre, what it means to them and about the importance of land acknowledgements. They taught me that is important that land acknowledgements be done by non-Indigenous people, Jo-Mary told me: “as a Tsuut’ina person it doesn’t make sense to acknowledge the land… that I haven’t had full access to, that my grandparents haven’t had full access to”. Indigenous people have a deep relationship with the land, and it is important that “non-Indigenous also learn that relationship, acknowledging who is here and who has been here”.
The Leighton Art Centre is a beautiful space inside and out and I greatly enjoyed being able to explore the space with a camera after speaking with Jo-Mary and Amanda. The organization was very patient, kind, and open with me as a student learning my craft and communication skills. I came back a number of times to capture footage and was welcomed every time despite their busy Christmas season starting up. This project gave me some insight into what it may be like to create content outside of the university setting, to develop an idea with a local community partner. It was confidence-building for me to be trusted in my technical and creative abilities, and to work with professionals in producing content that will hopefully contribute to fostering inclusivity.
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