“I would reclaim my true self”

Echoes from This Land: Visioning and Revisiting the Truth and Reconciliation 94 Recommendations fostered a collaborative experience that provided artists and creators from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities of different backgrounds, ages, genders, ethnicities, abilities, incomes, nationhoods, and nationalities with a forum to openly discuss and better understand the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its resulting 94 Calls to Action.

The SSHRC funded project was led by McMaster University Professor Briana Palmer. My contribution looked at Call to Action #17.

Artist Statement: Names matter. They help us feel at home in our own skin. This call is about officially reclaiming one’s true name so that it appears on legal identification such as a birth certificate, license, health card, or status card. As such I wanted the drawn gestures and forms to be personal, to be hand-written in both print and cursive—the latter a nod to signing your name on the dotted line. I also wanted the gesture of holding something with care, which in this case is a zinnia flower. Zinnias offer an explosion of colour to the garden, their blooms are long-lasting and reliable, and if given sunshine and water, a zinnia seed will begin to sprout in less than a week.

There has been some movement on this call “On June 14, 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada launched a process for all Indigenous peoples, residential school survivors and their families to reclaim their Indigenous names on replacement passports, travel documents, citizenship certificates and permanent resident cards free of charge until May 30, 2026.”