Healing with art and a paintbrush
Renée Rankine lost her brother when he was stabbed going to work. Now she’s using her skills to help other families of homicide victims
Renée Rankine lost her brother when he was killed on his way to work. Now, nearly three years later, she has found a way to use her art to help others who have lost a loved one to homicide.
To honour her brother Aaron Rankine-Wright, who was fatally stabbed in 2018 at age 19, the 22-year-old self-taught visual artist, created Project Aaron — an initiative where she will paint portraits of homicide victims for their friends and family at no charge.
“He always had a smile, and was such a positive person,” Rankine said of her brother. “There was one lady, who after he died, spoke of how Aaron mentored her child alongside many other children from his wrestling program. He was like a big brother to everyone.”
After volunteering for a non-profit music therapy program run by her former criminology professor, Adam Ellis, Rankine says she started to think about how she could use art in her healing process.
“It really inspired (me) and showed that you can use your art to do better things. It also reminded me that there’s so many other families who go through this, unfortunately, and when loved ones pass away, you want to keep their memory alive.” Project Aaron is a way for her to provide families with a keepsake to do just that.
The year Rankine-Wright died there were 96 homicides in Toronto, a record for the city. According to the Star’s count, 46 of the those killed were under the age of 30; 10 were minors.
Reflecting on the justice system’s approach to cracking down on youth violence, Rankine says that punitive, toughon-crime measures do not address the root issues in underserved or marginalized communities, and ultimately, the measures fail at understanding the youth most in need.
For this reason, her longerterm goal is to work with Ellis to create a scholarship fund to give back and help students achieve educational advancements.
“These students are ‘at-risk youth’ who just want to get out of that lifestyle. It’s hard to have to face so many barriers and struggles to getting an education,” Rankine said.
Ellis, who is the director of a research collective called Street Institute, agrees that a lot of work needs to be done to understand and effectively respond to PTSD and trauma in underserved communities. His research is inspired by his own lived experience with violence.
According to Ellis, trauma could manifest through things such as drug addiction and gun violence for youth who view these avenues as a means of survival in the streets and a way to express their inner pain.
“Many of the young people that were pushed toward the streets, their violence was actually a way for them to speak of their trauma,” said Ellis. “It was a call-out, and unfortunately, what happens is, their call is usually too late. You’re already in the justice system, you’ve already been labelled, and it’s just kind of like a downward spiral. You’re just trapped in. It is so hard to get out.”
A 2019 report from Toronto’s medical officer of health shows links between community violence and socioeconomic, gender and racial inequities. Community violence can also lead youth to experiencing posttraumatic stress or having behavioural, emotional and learning challenges.
That’s why Ellis, alongside colleagues at the University of Toronto, is developing a community program aimed at disrupting crime and violence by helping youth channel their trauma through outlets such as fitness, art and developing healthy mentorships with individuals who have gone through similar experiences.
“We just want to become like a check and balance. I think that knowledge helps create new knowledge, and new stories of what really happened, so that can then, hopefully, better inform public policy.
“I’m super supportive of Renée,” he added. “She’s super talented. And there is a space for art therapy in social work. That’s really responsive for our clients.”
Rankine hopes that with Project Aaron she can give back to the community in a positive way, and also keep her brother’s rich memory alive through visual art.
“It’s sad the way that our generation handles violence sometimes. And that’s unfortunately, how he died,” she said. “It was just kind of really important to our family that people know that he was a good person.”