Fundraising
In May of 2021thTk’emlups te Secwepemc announced that using ground-penetrating radar, the remains of as many as 215 children were found around the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. One of my colleagues at Capilano University is a residential school survivor and she shared her stories with us when this news broke. Many asked her the best way to support the Indigenous community at this time. She told us about the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS). She suggested using social media as a platform to show solidarity. It was after this meeting that I came up with the idea of working with artists to gather 215 drawings of shoes.
The ‘draw or donate’ campaign meant for every drawing I received I would donate money to the IRSSS and for every donation received I would draw a pair of shoes. While we did not make our goal of collecting 215 pairs of shoes, we did reach a total of 114. Submissions came in from around the world and a total of $2635 was raised for the IRSSS. In honour of Truth and Reconciliation Day that year, the art department film union IATSE 891 reached out and included our shoe drawings as part of their TRC banner art.
It was a pleasure to connect with so many dedicated artists for this event. This gallery is a sample of the shoe drawings that I did for the campaign. It was an opportunity for me to explore different styles and digital brushes.