Truth, Art & Reconciliation book

BY MARINA SACHT

I have come to meet Daniel R. Elliott, a Stz’uminus Artist who’s bridging the gap between the Indigenous and European worlds through his art. Elliott rediscovered his First Nations culture through healing and then created a series of original paintings with the hopes of reconciliation for all Canadians.

But before I see the studio and his latest work, which BC Transit commissioned, I am offered a tea made with Devil's Claw. As I sip the earthy brew, I admire the watercolours in the room, including some of the pieces in the Winds of Change Collection. Elliott is an artist, historian, medicine man, cultural practitioner, and filmmaker. He has joined forces with veteran videographer David Malysheff to form Raven Sky Productions, a collaboration to bridge the liminal world for Canadians and Indigenous people alike.

Elliott is part Scottish, giving him a unique view of both Indigenous and settler cultures. He recently released a beautifully illustrated book, Truth, Art & Reconciliation: A Winds of Change project, available on Amazon. The book chronicles his journey in creating the 14 original watercolour pieces that make up the Winds of Change art series. The show debuted in 2021 at VIU to great acclaim. His watercolours focus on First Nations themes. He uses symbolic languages from both Indigenous and settler cultures. While beautiful, they reveal the violence Indigenous People are subject to.

Caffyn Jesse, who worked on the book with Elliott, found the book both challenging and comforting. “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", Jesse wrote in the book foreword.

In 2013, Elliott testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on behalf of his father and grandmother about the violence they experienced and the impact that had on them and their families. He pauses in his tour of the studio to unroll a banner. It’s a quote of his that was included in the Final Report on Truth & Reconciliation. “I think all Canadians need to stop and take a look and not look away. Yeah. It's embarrassing. Yeah. It's ugly. It's an ugly part of our history. We don't want to know about it. So what I want to see from the commission is to rewrite the history book so that other generations will understand and not go through the same things that we're going through now. Like, it never happened.”

The inspiration for Winds of Change came when Elliott found it frustrating as an Indigenous Artist to “see all these carvers and all this amazing work but felt that the understanding of what is actually really going on is being missed.” He felt compelled to create winds of change. “I wanted to try and find a way to be a part of the solution of what needs to happen around healing.”

In his studio I study a watercolor showing an Indigenous man’s moment of transformation from the streets. The painting is based on a true story an Elder shared with him. “It's like hope and despair. It’s kind of the way our society's at now, you know, we feel it.”

On May 8, 2024, Elliott will be at Malaspina Theatre with his film Truth, Art & Reconciliation, a Winds of Change Project. For tickets, go to Eventbrite or call 778-269-0090.

Above: Daniel Elliott with one of the featured paintings in Truth, Art & Reconciliation: A Winds of Change Photo: Marina Sacht