Carberry mural honours Treaty One Territory

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This article was published 04/01/2024 (727 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new mural symbolizing the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation and honouring Treaty One Territory has been unveiled in Carberry, thanks to efforts from a local artist and the Carberry Plains Art Council.

Nova Cassan was born and raised in Carberry, located 51 kilometres east of Brandon, and returned to live in the community with her family in 2011. In 2020, she felt inspired to create a piece of artwork that would reflect the history of the area and the importance of land acknowledgement to Truth and Reconciliation.

Two years ago, she decided to approach local businesses in town to find a good home for a new mural.

“I’m an artist in this small town, so I see opportunity and there are so many walls that could use murals,” she said.

Working with the Carberry Plains Art Council and Treaty One Nation, Cassan created the mural based on the Treaty One flag that acknowledges the history of the land, which was once inhabited by the Anishinaabe and Cree before European contact.

The mural, on display on the exterior of the Old Town Hall on Carberry’s Main Street, features the colour yellow for the sun, green for the grass, blue for the rivers and red for the circle of life. The yellow triangles of the sun represent the seven First Nations of Treaty One, which was signed on Aug. 3, 1871, at Lower Fort Garry.

In December 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report. When news broke about the possible remains of as many as 215 children were found using ground-penetrating radar on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C., Cassan started thinking about what Truth and Reconciliation meant to herself and her community.

“It was pretty heavy, all of that news coming out. It just got to me. I realized that this wasn’t the time to be making frivolous art, that this needed to reflect our time and where our country needs to start going,” she told the Sun.

After learning more about Treaty One and finding the flag on its website, Cassan felt very inspired by the image of the sun emblazoned on it, she said. She decided at that point to incorporate the sun in the mural.

Treaty One was the first of a series of treaties known as the Numbered Treaties that took place between 1871 and 1921, according to Historica Canada. Treaty One negotiations ended with the Indigenous groups involved ceding their land to the Crown in exchange for annual annuities and material goods, including agricultural supplies, the federal government says.

But before a year had passed, the Indigenous communities involved in the negotiations approached the federal government, claiming that a number of the items promised within the treaty had not been granted to them, Historica Canada says. On April 30, 1875, the federal government passed an order stating that it must be ensured that all of those promises, known as the Outside Promises, were to be fulfilled and considered a part of the main agreements within the treaty.

With a group of youth volunteers from the local school, Cassan was able to create the mural while mentoring young artists and teaching them the process of painting a mural. She also had the opportunity to share with the students the history of Treaty One and the symbolism of the flag. She received approval from the Treaty One Nation organization for the mural, which took about a week to create from start to finish.

Cassan hopes that the mural will inspire people to learn more about the history of the area and about Truth and Reconciliation, she said. She especially hopes that the younger generation of Canadians will take the messages about Truth and Reconciliation to heart.

“I didn’t learn about this stuff in school, which is really unfortunate, because it was really important historically, when the treaty was signed. It’s kind of lost to most people in mainstream history,” she said. “We need to understand, because in my opinion, that’s the truth part. The least we can do is acknowledge that these treaties are in place and need to be lived up to.”

Cassan would also like to see more Treaty One flags being flown on a permanent basis around Carberry, she said.

The mural was funded by grants from Reilly’s Home Hardware, and supported by the Town of Carberry, the Rural Municipality of North Cypress Langford.

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