Sayisi Dene First Nation artist displays special exhibit at Canadian Museum for Human Rights

Nathan Liewicki · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 16, 2025 2:11 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

An art grounds that reflects connected the travel of the Sayisi Dene radical was unveiled successful Winnipeg.

Artist Jedrick Thorassie revealed his bid of works, entitled My Peoples Journey, for a peculiar one-day viewing at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights connected Sunday.

The exhibit, which was accessible to the public in conjunction with Free Museum Day, reflects connected the Sayisi Dene people's forced relocation to Churchill successful 1956, the racism they experienced, their survival, and the eventual instrumentality to their onshore astatine Tadoule Lake successful bluish Manitoba.

Thorassie is a self-taught artist from Sayisi Dene First Nation, and for him, creating these pieces taught him astir his community's past and his own.

"[My people] experienced a batch of hardships and struggles with drinking. A batch of radical passed and past they decided to determination themselves backmost to the land, truthful I'm conscionable telling that story," Thorassie said.

He had a challenging upbringing that included clip spent successful foster attraction and taking attraction of his sick grandma during the aboriginal parts of his teenage years. Thorassie is besides divorced, which helium said took a toll connected him.

"I cognize it's cliché to accidental this, but creation saved me. It really, truly did. I was truthful mislaid and truthful lonely, truthful heartbroken. Art conscionable filled that void and wrong my heart," Thorassie said Sunday on The Weekend Morning Show.

Paintings helped with understanding

All of the grounds paintings are done successful acrylic on canvas, and there's 1 successful peculiar that holds a peculiar meaning to him.

It's a portion that portrays his ma arsenic a child, on with her parents, and 1 helium describes as "sad" but 1 that alters his position connected the things they dealt with.

"I blamed different people. I blamed my ma for a batch of things that happened. But successful coating these paintings, I realized my ma went done worldly too, and it's not needfully her responsibility she went done worldly and I yet recognize that." Thorassie said.

He and ma present person a bully relationship, but helium besides wishes his grandma was inactive live to spot his creativity expressed done art.

"She would beryllium truly arrogant of me. She loves maine and I loved her," Thorassie said.

Although the nationalist tin lone instrumentality successful the exhibit, which is located connected the museum's 3rd level, until 5 p.m. Sunday, Thorassie says anyone funny successful viewing his creation tin cheque it retired connected the archetypal Friday of the period astatine an creation shop in the Exchange District.

He feels fortunate to beryllium wherever he's astatine successful life.

"I got truly lucky, I think. People successful bully places oregon studios, rec centres and the radical astatine the museum," helium said. "I'm just truly fortunate that I cognize them."