A travelling replica of The Witness Blanket – a large-scale artwork that asks viewers to bear witness to stories of “loss, strength, reconciliation and pride” of survivors of the residential school system – is on exhibit at the Chilliwack Museum.
The Witness Blanket was brought to fruition by B.C. artist and master carver Carey Newman, whose traditional name is Ha-Yalth-Kin-Geme.
Newman is of Kwagiulth, Salish and British descent, and the “blanket” he created features hundreds of carefully curated school items and images, donated by survivors and groups, in a format using cedar inspired by the woven blanket.
These two books accompany the Witness Blanket and are available at the Chilliwack Museum.
Some of the items come from residential schools in the Fraser Valley such as the Coqualeetza school in Chilliwack, and St. Mary’s in Mission.
“In the Kwakwaka’wakw and Coast Salish traditions, we ask people to stand and speak about what they witnessed,” Newman said.
He sees the individual components as “pieces of history: each fragment a silent witness to some part of this story. Individually they are paragraphs of a disappearing narrative.
“Together they are strong, collectively able to recount for future generations the true story of loss, strength, reconciliation and pride.”
Detail of the Witness Blanket, the new replica exhibit on at the Chilliwack Museum.
Viewers can experience each element interactively by downloading the Witness Blanket app, or checking out the website witnessblanket.ca.
“My role as an artist is to bear witness. The pieces themselves are witnesses. The people giving us the pieces are witnesses, and, at some level, we are all – or we all should be – witnesses,” Newman said.
The Witness Blanket team collected more than 880 objects from every province and territory in Canada as a way of honouring survivors.
The team travelled over 200,000 kilometres, visited 77 communities and met more than 10,000 people in the course of collecting objects from the 130 residential schools.
Over the course of curating the items and stories in 2013 and 2014, a video documentary crew recorded the process with interviews and footage that were made into a 90-minute documentary, Picking up the Pieces: The Making of the Witness Blanket.
The full-scale Witness Blanket travelled across the country initially, and is now permanently installed at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Visit the Chilliwack Museum at 45820 Spadina Ave. from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.
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