The new mural outside of the Mamidosewin centre is bringing new attention to the vast and diverse aboriginal culture on campus.
Aboriginal events coordinator at the Mamidosewin centre, Elena Abel said that the idea for the mural was a way to bring the aboriginal culture that is rich inside the centre outside of it for everyone to see.
The mural was created in the hopes of showing that the centre is not just for aboriginal students.
“It’s just to create diversity in the centre,” said Kalyn Beaudry, who works at the centre and helped paint the mural. “It shows that it’s not just for aboriginal people but that other cultures are welcome here as well.”
To fund the mural, the students from the centre used extra funds that they had raised throughout the school year so that Montreal-based Métis artist Shaun Gaudet could help design the wall with the help of Abel and three students: Dwayne Cox, Kalyn Beaudry, and Imo Saur.
So far, the mural has been very successful in bringing people into the centre and more people are asking questions about the painted images, and the centre as a whole.
“We’ve had a lot of people ask about it,” said Abel. “It’s really doing what we hoped it would, to really open up dialogue and kind of be a feature at the college so people know where we are.”
Abel said that there are images on the mural that speak to several aboriginal cultures that are very prominent on campus.
“The mural was meant to show that the cultures are living and breathing and changing,” said Abel. “People will see the mural and find items that really speak to them.”