Walking With Our Sisters

Walking With Our Sisters was intimate, which made it a commemoration while still being detailed art. Walking alongside the vamps, instead of just looking at them, made the experience more personal. The conclusion, spoken by the Aboriginal women working with the installation, expressed the need to dismiss blame, and instead search for forgiveness and reconciliation with the institution that had helped to cause their pain.
The installation let viewers into a private part of families’ lives. Behind the details there was grief and suffering. Some of the vamps were so personal that they made me feel like I was intruding. The vamps symbolized an element of a family’s past, and the heartache that had happened there. The vamps gave a greater perspective …show more content…
Until the recent election campaign, many people had not known about missing Aboriginals. Although the Aboriginals are the first people in Canada’s history, little is taught about them in school. The lack of recognition is reflected in the way that Canadian media diminishes how Aboriginals are poorly treated. At the end of the walk, some Aboriginal women working with the exhibit spoke to the group. The themes they communicated were of forgiveness and reconciliation. It was astounding to hear these women say that they wanted to move past what had happened and work with the police. The same institution that had sought to break down the Aboriginal community was the one that these people were looking for aid and support in. Of the whole exhibit, that was what moved me the most. The women spoke of dismissing blame, even though it would be so simple to have an explanation for all the suffering caused. The media, the school system, and law enforcement had pushed aside the struggles of Aboriginal people, but despite this, they had shown the system that oppressed them