... and a small voice whispers, ‘They found us’
‘A lot of people say they cried when they saw it,’ says Mi’kmaq artist, teacher
They Found Us, a drawing created by Whitney Gould of We’koqma’q First Nation in Cape Breton, incorporates an eagle, traditionally the one animal that can soar to the spirit world, and an orange sunset to represent the spirits of the 215 children found at a B.C. residential school making their way to the spirit world. A story about Gould is on Other coverage includes: New holiday to mark legacy of residential schools / A2, Archeological work to begin at site of Shubenacadie school / A3, and So much for the legend of the ‘nice’ Canadian / D1.
SYDNEY — When Whitney Gould created a drawing representing the 215 children discovered in unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School — a subject close to her heart — she wasn’t prepared for how strongly it would touch the hearts of others.
The artwork, titled They Found Us, depicts the silhouettes of two children, one leaning in to whisper into the ear of the other, with a bald eagle soaring high amid a vivid yellow and orange sunset.
Gould, a substitute teacher from We’koqma’q First Nation, couldn’t help thinking about her grandmother, Pauline Gould, a residential school survivor who passed away in 1992, when she saw the news of the children’s bodies found in British Columbia.
“I kept thinking to myself, if she didn’t come home, I wouldn’t be here.”
Then, she came across a social media post shared by Jarvis Googoo, also from We’koqma’q First Nation, that said, “… and a small voice whispers, ‘ They found us.’”
The words stuck with her and repeated in her head for a day before she sat down with her ipad and pencil and drew the image she had envisioned. She said the sky and the eagle represent the spirits of the children going back to the spirit world.
“It’s simple but it’s powerful, and I had a lot of people say they cried when they saw it,” she said.
Gould said her grandmother never spoke about her experiences at Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, but she always knew her grandmother carried the pain from her time there.
Growing up, Gould heard the stories of how her grandfather hid in the woods to avoid being taken away by the Indian agent.
“Residential school is real and now it’s something we can’t hide, and I just want people to realize this is the truth, there’s no sugarcoating it, and I just want my artwork to touch people in a way where they realize this is a serious matter. And that has been happening,” she said.
The 32-year-old realized the emotional impact her art could have when her grandfather, Alex R. Googoo, passed away 10 years ago. Before he died, he asked that she do a drawing to put on his casket, and asked that it use traditional Mi’kmaq imagery, a style she had not tried before.
“I put so much emotion into that drawing, I cried, and that’s when I realized I wanted to start doing more traditional Indigenous artwork to touch my people and to touch other people,” she said.
When Jarvis Googoo, who now lives in Dartmouth, saw the image that Gould had created, he was blown away.
His original post, eight words and three orange heart emojis on a plain orange background, has been shared 6,600 times and garnered almost two thousand reactions since he shared it on Tuesday.
Googoo, 40, who went to Indian day school in We’koqma’q from kindergarten to Grade 5, saw the words on social media but couldn’t share the original post, so he took them and made his own post, turning the words into a quote from the children whose remains were found at the Kamloops residential school.
“Sometimes I think you need to reach people’s heartstrings and I could have put up numbers or statistics, but I think it was more empathy I was looking for, basically you’re putting yourself in the positions of those children,” he said.
Googoo hopes the words he posted and the artwork created by Gould will inspire people to learn about the 94 Calls to Action issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2015.
“Sadly, sometimes I think as time goes on, sometimes people forget about these reports, or they prefer to forget, but now there seems to be a lot of support from people in Canada who are calling on renewed support for the Calls to Action,” he said.
A 2020 report card issued by the Assembly of First Nations on the progress made on the 94 Calls to Action indicated that just over half had achieved moderate or significant progress, but pointed to justice, equity in the legal system and missing children as areas that required increased commitment and action.