The ‚Winds of Change‘ is a series of watercolour paintings by Daniel Elliott – a Stz’uminus Elder who is a healer and teacher in First Nations communities. The paintings depict the beauty and power of Indigenous culture and community, along with the ongoing trauma of colonization. This book includes all paintings in the series, along with Elliott’s own story, and his powerful insights on the path of truth and reconciliation.
Elliott began studying watercolour painting as a young boy. He found that artmaking provided access to altered states of consciousness. Art became a crucial way for him to build capacity to live with purpose and choice, despite the intergenerational trauma, sexual abuse, family violence and relentless racism he experienced. He writes, ‚If you can access this alternate consciousness I have been describing, the consequences of trauma are not linear or predictable. Hopelessness is not inevitable. We can feel the grief, and understand the impact of ongoing violence, and stay with it long enough to choose the next right thing.‘
In the introduction to Truth, Art and Reconciliation, Caffyn Jesse describes this book as ‚both challenging and comforting.‘ She says, ‚This book asks us to understand many dimensions of Indigenous trauma. It invites us to feel our own – and each other’s – traumas more intimately. It also opens new possibilities for healing, alternate ways of seeing, and transformative well-being.‘
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Truth, Art and Reconciliation
Anchoring in What’s Right
The Winds of Change Series Emerges
Art helps us access altered states of consciousness
Transparent Soul
Elders Watching
The Elders‘ Gaze
I am the Elder watching
Spirit Dancer
Feeling Deeply Seen
Earning Regalia in Prison
A New Way of Painting
Silent Mountains
Witness to Ongoing Resistance
Gender and the Sacred
Shores of Indifference
Honouring Indigenous Women Leaders
Different Moral Compasses
Honouring My Own Trauma Journey
Ancestors
The Agony of Ongoing Indifference
Thuqmin
Revelling in Abundance
An Abundance of Spirit
Art Creates Access to Abundance
Smoke of Torment
An Intimate Agony
Artwork and Community Work
Sun Monster
I See You. You Can’t Hide.
Surprising Support at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Intergenerational Trauma
Being With the Agony
The Kelp Doll
Cultural continuity, despite the violence
Red Herring
A Transitional Moment
Let’s keep on dismantling and decolonizing
Commitment to a process of continual awakening
The Transformation Song
Transformation
Having impact while we sleep
Conciliation
Oil and Water Don’t Mix
(Re)conciliation at different levels
Colonization
What is the colonization of life?
A collision of values and worlds
In Conclusion
Layers of Truth and Reconciliation
All Alone Stone
About the Author
Über den Autor
Caffyn Jesse is an educator and a writer. She is the author of Love and Death in a Queer Universe, Science for Sexual Happiness, and other books.