The Human Garden - Children are born kind and innocent. By Ana Maria Cruz-Valderrama.

The Future of Canada Project: Echoes From This Land 0 Revisiting Truth and Reconciliation
Call to Action No. 66
"We call upon the federeal government to establish multi-year funding for community-based youth organizations to deliver programs on reconciliation, and establish a national network to share information and best practices."

Beaded piece done by a settler, Ana Maria Cruz-Valderrama.
Colombian born, Ana Maria is a community builder living in Ottawa who perceives beading as a beautiful art to express feelings, emotions and appreciation of what surrounds us. Beading is also a precious art tool that helps us to convey messages as our ancestors have done.

The beader views humanity as a beautiful garden of colourful flowers of a diverse size. The Humanity Garden includes large flowers in a circle with a red flag, a symbol of racism, hate and discrimination. The center depicts a pink Metis flower as a symbol of kindness. Between the Metis flower and the large flowers with Forget Me Not flowers which represents children and youth. One of the meanings of this delicate flower is hope, Ana Maria sees children and youth as our hope for a better world and for a better tomorrow. To reach a better world, children and youth need to be protected by adults who have the responsibility to teach them the essence of kindness, educate them and create awareness of the hurt by attitudes and behaviour of racism, hate and discrimination.

Black is a powerful colour that means power, elegance, authority and mystery but it also means sorrow, sadness, misery and despair. In the piece, black beads are used to showcase the sorrow caused by our attitudes of racism, hate and discrimination.

As adults we all must work to eradicate those attitudes through education and awareness. Education and awareness shall and must be a permanent endeavour in our existence to build a better and brighter world for us all.

Ana Maria is an enthusiastic beader who learned and continues to be with the Metis, poet and artist Patsea Griffing who leads "Beading with Patsea circle".

 

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