Andrew Mah

Teacher Delia Cross Child and two students: Christopher Eagle Tail Feathers and Andee Wells. From the Kainai, a.k.a. Blood, reserve. Delia Cross Child teaches at Kainai high school.

On a red-ochre background is a drawing of a medicine wheel — the traditional symbol of health and healing among many Aboriginal Peoples. Within the wheel stand more traditional native symbols: a lone teepee for freedom, a circle of teepees for safety, a soaring eagle for strength. Atop this drawing, high school student Bernadette Eagle Plume has inscribed defiant words, “HIV is not wanted in this community.”

Eagle Plume’s painting is one of dozens of works by First Nations youth on display as part of a new exhibition at the Glenbow Museum called Situation Rez: Kainai Students Take Action with Art. A combination of artistic expression, social commentary and personal history, the exhibit features a series of ink and acrylic wash paintings and papier-mâché bowls created by students of the Kainai High School in Standoff, Alberta. The pieces and accompanying student comment cards use traditional native symbols and cultural beliefs to deal with the very modern problem of HIV/AIDS.

The problem of HIV/AIDS is particularly urgent within many native communities. According to Statistics Canada, if current trends continue, 30 to 60 per cent of aboriginals in Canada under the age of 25 will have HIV/AIDS. The students in Standoff are at the front line and they know it.

“Our people have lost so much just from alcohol and we’re still suffering — AIDS is getting bigger and bigger,” says Andee Wells, a 16-year-old student artist from Kainai High School.

The idea for the exhibition arose when Pam Heavy Head approached Kainai High School teacher Delia Cross Child. Heavy Head, the outreach co-ordinator for the Red Cross and Kainai Wellness Centre, was looking for a way to get the message across regarding the dangers of HIV/AIDS, and its magnified effect on First Nations youth where alcohol and drug abuse has led to the use of dirty needles and risky sexual behaviour — and an incipient aboriginal AIDS epidemic.

“It’s self-induced,” says Heavy Head of the problem. “It’s a choice. If we had value of self, we wouldn’t treat ourselves this way.” As a way of creating both awareness and self value, Heavy Head and Cross Child came up with the idea of using art to embrace traditional Blackfoot values of wellness and strength while acknowledging the contemporary threat of HIV/AIDS.

For Cross Child’s students, the project became an opportunity for both learning and self-expression. Many of the works express powerful themes: bitterness over the ironic resemblance of the current HIV/AIDS threat to past epidemics like smallpox and measles brought on in the past century by contact with white settlers; sadness and fear over an affliction that for many has hit too close to home. However, there is a thread of defiance and affirmation in the works as well — a belief that HIV/AIDS can be overcome, and that their cultural traditions and values can help.

“We’re trying to keep our culture strong,” says Wells, who takes pride in the exhibition. Fellow student artist Christopher Eagle Tail Feathers echoes the thought: “We’re trying to fight for ourselves as aboriginals.”

The Situation Rez exhibition represents a unique collaboration among the Glenbow Museum, Red Cross and Kainai High School. For the museum, it’s a chance to host a modern-day exhibition that delivers an important message. Glenbow ethnology curator Beth Carter notes, “While this exhibit is small in scale, it is a powerful way to include contemporary First Nations themes in the museum, and to build links into the native community.” Cross Child is excited that her students’ works can be seen in a museum that hosts thousands of youth from Calgary and southern Alberta every year. Her hope is that they can help educate young people about a global issue. “It’s a disease that affects millions of people,” Says Cross Child. “The exhibition is one way for our students to contribute to an awareness of AIDS.”

Situation Rez will be on display at the Native Cultures gallery on the third floor of the Glenbow Museum through 2008.