Art show celebrates Woodland artists

Queen Elizabeth District High School students and Pelican Falls First Nation High School students came together to present Northern Expressions, an art exhibition featuring Northern Nishnawbe Education Council’s expansive art collection May 1.
“This is an art exhibition that incorporates the artists and their style of painting, which is woodland art,” said Micah Williams, a Pelican Falls student. “We gathered them together to show the people.”
Lance Hildebrand, an art teacher at Queen Elizabeth said the idea came to him in the fall of 2012 – he recalled, during his time as an employee of Northern Nishnawbe Education Council (NNEC) that the organization had a huge collection of art that no one had seen. He said he learned that QE had been given funding from the arts council of Ontario and decided an art show would be a good way to teach the students real world skills.
They used the funding to hire Laurel Wood, a local artist from Sioux Lookout who acted as curator artist for the exhibition. She acted as a guide, coming to both high schools, he said.
“Other than sports teams getting together, I don’t think there has been a collaboration between Pelican and Queen Elizabeth,” said Hildebrand. “We went out to Pelican Falls with my students and brainstormed an idea for the show.”
The results were Pelican Fall’s students looking into the research, documentation and writing as it fit into their native English writing course, run by Sylvia Davis, a teacher at Pelican Falls who helped collaborate on the art show.
“I’m the native studies teacher, so this was passed onto me,” said Davis.
Shanah Southwind is a Grade 10 student at QE who took on a Grade 11 art course.
“We took on the part of designing posters and hanging them and advertising for the show in Sioux Lookout and the surrounding area,” said Southwind. “I feel honoured to have brought them here.”
Aaron Kakepetum, a Grade 11 Pelican Falls student from Keewaywin was part of the research team.
“It felt good to be a part of something Pelican helped to make happen—I feel proud of the work we put into this project,” said Kakepetum.
Queen Elizabeth students helped collaborate in many ways, providing food and music for the community.
The art show will be running until May 15.