| Art Therapy in Kasabonika, April/May 2008
Funded by The Ontario Arts Council, a branch of the Ontario government
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Main photo: Blustering winds threatened to carry the
loon away outside the school as students assembled
the body, head and wings of the eight-foot tall
sculpture.
Top left: Two students use cardboard boxes
to weigh down the body. Each part of the sculpture
was created separately before being moved outside,
where it was fully assembled.
Middle: As the Grade 9
class created the loon sculpture, other classes in the
school caught wind of the idea and quickly created
messages that were put inside the structure. Students
were encouraged to “let go” of their problems,
concerns or troubles.
Bottom: Artist Moses Beaver
makes an attempt to light the sculpture. In a matter
of minutes, the bird would disintegrate in fl ames,
symbolically carrying to the Creator messages inside
written by the students.
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Moses Beaver, left, and the Grade 9 class
Having spent a couple hours each day constructing a bird sculpture over a period of four days, Grade 9 students at Simeon McKay Memorial School in Kasabonika watch in anticipation as flames quickly engulf the creation. Inside the structure are confidential messages written by the students.
Story and Photos By Brent Wesley
“Whoa,” a chorus of students echoes as Moses Beaver pulls different items from his bag. Standing before a Grade 4 class at Simeon McKay Memorial School in Kasabonika Lake, Beaver lays out a few flutes and a hand drum.
Leaning forward in their seats, eyes bulging as they look at the items, the students anxiously await whatever comes next.
Beaver asks for volunteers to play his drum. Two boys shoot their hands up quickly and Beaver calls them to the front. They turn outt to be brothers. While one holds the drum and the other beats it, Beaver plays a song on one of his flutes. The class is enthralled.
After entertaining the class with a few songs, Beaver, originally from Nibinamik (Summer Beaver), makes a wolf mask out of bristol board. He tailors it to fit one of the students and hands it over to him once it’s complete. A smile spreads across the student’s face.
Pulling a couple of more volunteers from the class, Beaver draws caricatures of them on the chalkboard. The children erupt into smiles and laughter at the depictions Beaver creates. Later that day, just outside the school, a group of students gather as smoke bellows into the sky from a bird sculpture created by a Grade 9 class.
“Kids need to see things,” Beaver says earlier that day as he explains the idea behind the sculpture.
It’s a large eight-foot high structure made of cardboard boxes and paper tissue, shaped into a loon figure. Inside, it holds written notes from the students. “It’s a mental healing thing,” Beaver further explains.
The idea is for students to take a piece of paper and write out a message or prayer. The paper is placed inside the sculpture and then it’s set on fire, symbolically carrying the messages to the Creator. Whatever is written is purely confidential.
Most of the older grades gather around the burning object as the smoke carries the messages into the sky. It’s a windy and blustery day, fanning the fire as it burns quickly.
This is the “seeing” Beaver mentioned. Instead of attempting to talk and explain healing methods, Beaver shows the students how to “let go” of all that could be troubling.
He doesn’t ask or talk to the students about their troubles or the messages they wrote on paper. He only guides them in the power of creation. He doesn’t tell them how to make the sculpture. Rather, he tells them what they are making and gives them tools and ideas to create the object.
And it’s the process of creation and development that matters most, Beaver says. The Grade 9 class spent four days building the body, head and wings of the sculpture. Using cardboard boxes, the students shaped and assembled the pieces of the loon. Using tissue paper and glue, the class added colour to the bird. After all the work, the sculpture was engulfed by flames in a matter of minutes.
“You’ve heard of contemporary art?” Vesa Peltonen, asks the school’s vice-principal before the sculpture is set ablaze. Peltonen is the school’s art teacher and an accomplished artist himself. “Well this is temporary art,” he chuckles.
Beaver uses this mental healing process in his travels to communities across Ontario. With assistance from the Ontario Arts Council, Beaver promotes therapy through art. His work has brought him to remote communities such as Kingfisher Lake, Eabametoong, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug and Pikangikum. He has also worked in Red Lake, Upsala, Thunder Bay and a few cities in southern Ontario, sharing his passion for creativity.
While in Kasabonika, Beaver also worked with Grade 7 and 8 classes to create murals. He assists in the design, but most of the creation is left to the students. Later, the murals will be placed on the walls. Beaver says it helps to provide students with a sense of ownership of the school.
Now late in the day, the sun is slowly setting. Temperatures are frigid as a group of students make their way outside and assemble the pieces of the loon sculpture.
The wind blows hard against the bird. As the wings are attached, the loon seemingly attempts to fly away. The students scramble to hold it down.
Once settled, the Grade 9 class gathers around the bird, now placed in the middle of a frozen baseball field. Other teachers and students also curiously check things out. Stuffed with cardboard and paper, it doesn’t take long for Peltonen and Beaver to get the fire going.
With the blustering wind, the loon is soon in flames.
The students watch as the smoke ascends skyward. The flames provide temporary warmth, but soon the sculpture is down to ashes and coal. A student turns towards me. “You came all the way here just for this?” asks Jonah Brown as we watch the burning structure, now almost completely gone. I just smile and nod my head.
Most of those who braved the cold head back in the school. A few students who spent most of the time building the bird stay behind until the fire is no more. Their messages and prayers, now unseen, have been carried to wherever they need to go to work their magic.
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