Wanuskewin Galleries presents: Sacred Bundle

This exhibition, and related work is created by Adele ᒪᐢᑿᓱᐤᐃᐢᑵᐤ Arseneau.

Each cradleboard is nestled in soft animal hide fur, symbolizing the return of the sacred bundles, the Indigenous children, to the cultures and communities from which they were taken.

This body of work is a ceremony to honor the children the Catholic Church and the Canadian government kidnapped. Assembling by hand 141 cradleboards with mossbags: a culmination of hidetanning, carving and community.

All the things, the Native communities have struggled to regain, redefine and reconnect because of the legacy and impacts of the Residential schools. In creating a community around these stories – stories that outline the tremendous violence of settler colonialism – the body of work is both sculptural as well as an act of love.

By forefronting the world-altering love of Indigenous communities, Adele ᒪᐢᑿᓱᐤᐏᐢᑵᐤ Arseneau has created an exhibit that places grief and celebration in devastating symmetry.

These ᐁᐧᐢᑫᐧᐱᑖᑲᐣ wîskwêpitâkan: Sacred Bundles – one for every school named in the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement are nestled in the soft fur of animal hides, returning sacred Indigenous children to the land from which they were stolen. They are represented in their beauty and vibrancy so that we may witness what violence destroys and the life embodied in every mossbag. May these stories remain ever in our collective consciousness.