INDIGENOUS ART ADVENTURES - (Episode 8) Reconciliation Tree

[Music] well hello there everyone and tanza it is me lance cardinal from the treaty 8 big stone cree nation and i'm so excited to have you here again for another episode of indigenous art adventures a fun and exciting place where we do some art learn some indigenous language and culture and of course have a great time together so once again thank you so much for joining me here and it's going to be such a great day now you can see i'm wearing my orange shirt because it is the month of september and of course september 30th is now the national day for truth and reconciliation so it's very important that we show our support on that day by wearing our orange shirts and finding other ways we can show our love and appreciation for indigenous culture but we'll talk more about that in a minute the first thing we're going to do as we always do at the beginning of each episode is say hello and cream and of course a lot of you out there have learned this already but those of you who haven't the way we say hello in kri is [Music] that's right the cree word for hello is tan se and i hope all of you out there are trying it but if you haven't let's do it right now together are you ready on a count of three i want to hear you nice and loud say the word tan se as well are you ready one two three ten se that's amazing good job out there you did great and thank you so much as always for trying new languages trying new things it's super super important now of course as well as our greeting of the day we always do our cree word of the day as well and the kree word is always something we say and learn that helps us celebrate the day and gives us a little clue as what to our uh craft is gonna be today so the queen we're gonna learn today is the cree word for fall and fall is here right now it's a beautiful time the leaves are out they're falling to the ground it's the perfect time for photos and selfies and spending some time uh in nature and for us as indigenous people it's super important because it's the time for harvesting we harvest our food we harvest our animals by going hunting it's a very very important time of year we also harvest our medicines and our plants like our sweet grass and our sage that also happens in the fall so it is fall and the way we say the word fall in kree is te guagan that's right the queen word for fall is tahuagan now i hope all of you out there will try it with me on the count of three here we go are you ready taguagan yes that is the word for fall how exciting it's super amazing and of course that brings us to our amazing project of the day now i told you it's fall and i told you it's september and september 30th as i said is an amazing day which used to be the orange shirt day and we all used to wear our orange shirts to us to celebrate the memory of the children who went to residential school those who survived and of course those who never made it home so it's a very serious day we wear our orange shirts with the slogan every child matters just like this one here but now what's amazing is here in canada we have the national day for truth and reconciliation which is now happening all over the country which is super cool and we're going to do something today that celebrates that are you ready here's today's project today's project is a reconciliation tree check this out this is such a cool project it is this beautiful uh orange leaf tree to celebrate of course the orange shirt day and the color orange which now has represented our people in the month of september and this is such a great tree it's a tree that you can create together as a family super easy and you can also make little messages all over it here you can see little messages i made with an uh a marker and a pen that says uh what i'm gonna do towards reconciliation what are my promises that i'm gonna do like this one here says i will wear an orange shirt which is awesome this one down here says i will never forget which is very very cool and this one here says i will support indigenous so these are really a great chance to uh think about what you want to do during this time during this time of reconciliation and truth how do you want to help bring the story forward and be a part of healing here in canada so it's amazing so i hope you're gonna do uh this project together as a family or as a class or whoever to help with reconciliation super cool all right i'm gonna put this right over here on the side so that it's sort of in the shot but not taking over the whole area perfect now first thing you have to do is get all of our supplies together super super important so the first thing we're gonna get is eight orange uh branches so here we have eight orange branches that i got at the dollar store they're super cool because they're super cheap you can buy them at a dollar store and i have eight branches here you see them one two three you can get all sorts of different kinds of of trees uh little leaves big leaves wherever you want to get it's totally up to you but try to get orange if you can alright the next thing we're gonna need of course is some masking tape and here we have some masking tape right here that's going to help with our tree we also need some orange paper and some felt so we have orange paper here but you can also use um felt or whatever you have that's orange this is going to be to make our little shirts so it's super important to have some orange paper or like i said some felt as well we also need some black clothes pins which i have right here you can see these black clothes pins are you can buy them at any dollar store whatever you want but you can also use regular clothespins or you can also use a string or even a paperclip remember whatever we do here it is completely up to you there's no right or wrong in art it's completely objective so whatever you want to use to make your craft successful is good we're also going to need some scissors here which we have right here some scissors a black marker to write our messages on and we're also going to need some paint supplies now as i always say it's good to have um paint and also um to have a paint brush but also you need um some paper towels just like this to help um to uh clean up the mess and of course something to lay down on the table uh so you can paint correctly we're also gonna need a cup of water as well which we'll get to as soon as we get to that spot in the program all right so here we go all our supplies are in place we're gonna put them to the side so we don't have them in the way and the first thing we're going to do for this project is create our tree super duper important okay so put our supplies to the side and all we need right now are these eight branches of leaves okay put them right here everything else goes to the side like that so we'll need our branches and our masking tape so make sure you have those ready to go now i like to sort of gather them all together in a bunch make sure all the pieces kind of touch the bottom here so they're the same length and look at the top and see if you like how that looks that's sort of how your tree will look so be sure you like uh the the way it looks when you hold it in a bunch okay so that's how it's gonna look i don't mind that that looks pretty cool i think we can bring this one down a little bit and that one's a little high and there we go perfect there is my tree branch now we hold it like this and the next thing we're going to do is take our masking tape and tape around this stem and create a base now this can be a little bit difficult there's lots of ways you can do it you can put one piece at a time i like to just wrap it kind of in a spiral all the way down so we start at the top here and go like this and i kind of go sideways leave enough room at the top there so that it's some somewhere open and then put some masking tape around the bottom now don't worry too much about how neat and tidy it looks this is all going to be painted later brown so that's totally fine just go down slowly if you can in a spiral pattern like i'm doing here now you can use any kind of tape but this is a good tape because it masking tape really paints well a lot of other tapes might not take paint very well and this is important that you use paint but you can also use brown masking tape a lot of art stores and craft stores uh they do have um a lot of mask um color tape it's kind of fun as well now let's sort of do an extra on the bottom there we go just like that so we can see here and that's a little bit in the bottom you can see we're going to need some um for the legs and also some of the top now the next thing we're going to do is start making our bottom so what's important about this part here is that we kind of gather the legs into a bunch of of two or three at a time i have three bases here on mine so i'm gonna try and do that again so we take two or three at a time and we start to spread them outward to make legs okay so here i have three and three and two i think that's going to be cool for this one start pulling them out like that you can see kind of made a little bit of a spiral pattern um just like that you can see how that looks now it's important that we kind of make sure that we have what we want in terms of how many in one place and then we're going to put together tape now once again we take our tape once we have that in place and we wrap those as well okay so again same process you want to take um some masking tape and start wrapping those legs up real tight now i'm going to take a big long length like this so it's easier to work with on the base and just start doing it there so here we go wrap those legs up just like this going around and around now again this might be a bit more difficult for the kids to do so moms and dads or uncles or cucumbers or grandmas whoever's out there working with these kids and hopefully doing it together as a team or as a work team or as a you know whatever kind of team help each other out that's what this is all about is asking for help and you know during these crazy times in the you know the covid you know everyone needs to learn how to ask for help a little bit more to reach out to each other so again i'm taking another piece of tape here and wrapping those up super super easy and you want to go as tight as you can so that it is making one sort of base leg now again you can do eight base legs if you want and not cover them in tape at all but i find putting two or three together really helps to sort of um create a stronger footing to hold the tree up and you can see here it's quite a heavy tree so it's important to have strong base that's why i think using two or three in each of these legs is important so once again i'm going on a sort of a diagonal and don't worry about how pretty or neat it is it's kind of cool when the tape gets all bunched up because it creates um this sort of like um tree trunk look right that sort of rough kind of look we want that that's what we want okay you can see here this sort of taped end has a little bit showing i want to cover that with tape a little bit more just so i can have something really easy to paint on put that up there again and again just bunch it up at the end no big deal and don't worry too much about how pretty this is you guys this is just for you know it's more important about the ending result about trying to spend some time thinking about how we can reckon be reconcile and be a part of the healing here in canada okay so here we have now the tree is completely uh covered in tape on the base so we go like this and like that and then sort of push it down until it feels right there we go now you can also like i see here i've also split this one into two as well to make more of a of a branch and we can do that with some of these as well all we have to do is take some scissors break apart some of those areas there if we want and make a two so you don't have to do this you can do just three or you can do like i said many many more it's up to you but once once we split those apart you can add some more tape to sort of cover them up again you want to have a fairly smooth surface for that paint but like i said before don't worry too much about it there's one side all covered in tape and you can even go the long way if you want to tape it on so it's not necessarily the short way but the long way like that and go around and twist and twist the end there to close it off pull it off and there we go another way to do it so there we have sort of a split look for one of those pieces and that's just to add a little bit more personality to your tree but i'm going to leave that for now how it is with the one two and three now we can see here on the bottom it sort of has an open bottom let's put a little bit more tape on there just so we can cover it up so that the paint has somewhere to attach itself to on that part because it won't stick to the plastic very well it's important to cover most of that base up with paint to create um you know a surface for that for the paint to go on unless you're going to use spray paint that might work and that's definitely a nice fast option is to use spray paint a brown spray paint and spray the bottom as well you won't have to put tape on it then that's another thing you can do if you want to not do the tape part of this project then be sure and get spray paint it's a much easier way to do it so there we have the tree all done yes i love it it stands very nicely and perfect now the next step is to sort of open up the top you want to open up the top up to make the look of our tree now you can see here for my sample tree i put um on the base you can see i've i've taped up a few of the the bunches together to create um sort of like a a tree base on the bottom that's something you can do as well it's when you split these up again put them into you know groups of of five or six or three or four big big branches going up into the sky kind of like you would see on a real tree right so i'm going to divide up these wires into maybe four or five sections and go like this and like this and like this you can see i've chosen three sections uh that i've pulled it apart on so i can tape those and that's just a tip so we can create a little bit more of that tree look and again we add some more tape and this is gonna really help it look like a real tree and this is not again not necessary you can just go right into the next step which is painting the tree uh but this is gonna make it look a little bit more interesting that's one section taped and then another one [Music] and i love doing these kind of projects that have thought in them you know these kind of projects where you're doing something important for you know the love of of humanity a way to work together to find ways to you know to approach the world in a good way in a positive way and right now that's something we all need because i know things can feel down these days a lot of our world has changed a lot of things we used to love and do have have stopped happening and that's okay we can find ways to smile still we can find ways to have a positive day and i think this kind of project really encourages that okay so you can see here i've put made three under there three other little branches that are perfect for this tree and what i'm gonna do is fill in those little blanks in the middle so again the paint has somewhere to go this is probably the biggest project we've worked on together as a team and it's so exciting but also one of the most important ones to me i am so um the kind of person who wants you know to help with the reconciliation of our country to work towards a better place in this country for everyone to live you know first nations people inuit metis non-indigenous people all the different nations of the world who come here to our country in this beautiful turtle island that we call home and this lovely land the creator has made for us there's lots of room for everyone for every kind of religion every kind of culture and i hope that all of you out there are doing something like this to help promote that idea so let's keep going so what we do next is we spread these last branches out that we have so they're all sort of like you know stuck together we're going to spread them out this is where your little uh creative floral magic comes into play you want to spread them all out in different directions for now and then that'll become our tree now this is such an easy project because there's no rules this is something we made up ourselves something for the indigenous art adventure team which is you uh to create as a team and to create something beautiful to celebrate the day and you know a lot of times i'll say the word celebrate for these kind of days and this is a celebration these are days we celebrate culture we look at a way to be happy that we're finding a way to come together that's worth celebrating even though we're talking about some pretty serious issues you know the fact that we're talking about them is important right okay so here we go we have all these beautiful branches all spread out nice and evenly and i think that our tree is ready oh my goodness i absolutely love it i'm gonna move our sample tree out of the way for now so we have some more room to work i'm gonna put this tree right over here all right now that we have our tree in place and we have it all kind of finished the next step we're going to do is painting so painting is really important for this project because it makes that tree go from the taped look to a brown look now i have some craft paint which i have here i got from the dollar store super cheap to do and you can get that as well but you can use whatever paint you want but remember paint does take some time to dry so it's important to maybe use a hair dryer or something like that to ins to speed up the process of your drying unless you want to leave it overnight and start the project again if you do then paint the tree today pause the video let it dry and come back tomorrow but here we go so i have some a little styrofoam plate here which i always use for my paint i've put down some paper you can see here some paper to protect my work area i have my paintbrush i also have a cup of water and i also have some paper towel now these are to make sure i have somewhere to dab my paint brush when i'm working so i put that down here my water on top of it and my paint goes right about there okay let's start painting so again don't worry too much about how this looks just slather on that brown paint so it looks nice and covered and it gives your tree a brown base now look at that super easy to do now i like to hold the tree up in the air when i'm painting it's easier to get all the sides you can see what's going on and it's super super cool now remember this can be a team effort everyone can grab a paintbrush and start to paint and don't worry about making a mess you're here to have fun and that's what it's all about is having fun and working together as a team or working on your own with important purpose like today [Music] now some days i love working together with my friends and family on art and some days i like doing it alone because art is a kind of a way to escape the world to escape uh what might be troubling you in the day and to find a way to express yourself in different ways sometimes we have a hard time talking about things sometimes we have a hard time discussing things that are um maybe too emotional or too sensitive or or make us sad but sometimes through something like this we can take those sad feelings and we turn them into art and maybe we can even talk about things in an easier way through creativity and today we're doing that you know sometimes there's a lot of history in our country um in terms of the residential school system things like that that might be difficult to talk about or think about or even read about but it's important that we do and it's also important that we take that information and we try and do something about it like we are today creating these amazing trees now be sure to get right up to the top there so we can get all that masking tape covered so it doesn't look light brown it looks dark brown and it looks absolutely covered now i'm using a light brown paint because i think it looks better with with this but you can use a white paint and make a poplar tree you can use a really dark plate paint and make a fur a sort of a fir tree base it's totally up to you like i always say there's no right or wrong in in art it's completely subjective to your work okay so there we go we're going to paint some of that out amazing so there we go yes it's all painted so now i'm going to take my hair dryer i'm going to dry all this i'm going to come right back and it'll be all dry see you in a second all right i'm back again and i've completely dried the tree which only took me about two minutes of my time with the hairdryer to dry that so it's super super easy to do now the best part is cleaning up because we always want to clean up our mess every time we're done doing this part of the craft cleaning up is so important we don't want to leave a messy area to work in especially for our moms and dads to clean up we want to make sure everything's cleaned up as we go so first thing we do is rinse out our brush when we're done painting we check out our paper towel see if it's uh clear so when you see no color coming off your brush that means your paint brush is clean just like that so we take that put it to the side take our paint put that away for now also we can throw away all this paper into our recycling uh if you have a recycling bin at your house it's important to recycle everything that we can protect our mother earth just like that there we go paint paintbrush away as well as well as my water okay so here we are we have the next step we're gonna do is create our little uh orange shirts for our tree okay so what we need is orange paper like this okay and a marker and of course some scissors so what we do is we get some orange paper i have two different kinds of orange here a dark orange and a light orange i'm gonna go with the dark orange it looks a little bit better put that to the side for now so we take our black marker and we draw our t-shirt on there now you can see here i have lots of little t-shirts i'm going to make one and you just draw it by hand if you don't want to drop by hand you can also download an image from the internet print out some t-shirt patterns whatever you want to do but it's pretty easy you draw a shirt like this first a collar then shoulders one sleeve over here one sleeve over here like that and like that oh i made it a little long that's okay we can fix that like that and there we go and there's my t-shirt just like that so also when you draw don't worry about how it looks it's not about how perfect that t-shirt is it's about the message so now take your scissors and cut it out now you can cut out as many t-shirts as you want these are just for you to use for your messages now you don't have to do t-shirts you can just do little slips of paper that have a message on it you can also put little pictures of people you love and care about in people you've lost in the past who you're going to be remembering that's an idea as well we take our cut out our drawing and we cut it out with our scissors and there we are left with a shirt just like this so cute now what we do next is take our marker and we write down a message we want to give in memory of the children or some sort of action we're going to do to remember this day or to make a change in this world right now what am i going to put on here i know i'm going to write down i will never forget perfect and that's something i think we should all do is never forget what happened in the history of our country at residential schools all the hundreds of children who went to schools and some of those who are surviving and many of those who never made it home we have to think about them open our hearts and remember them and uh and today i'm doing that as well so here we have my shirt which says i will never forget and we put it onto our tree so we take our safety pins our little clothespins just like this we put them on the clip and put them on our treats so we find a spot we like on our tree let's see i'm going to put one i think right about here make sure the message is totally clear people can see what you wrote just like that and look at that yes i will never forget such an exciting project and don't forget you have the whole tree to cover it's up to you make as many messages of love as you want you can put messages of love pictures photos whatever you want to make this day special and don't forget about the cree word of the day again and that creed word for fall is tagwagon tagwagon and that means fall and of course thank you so much for joining me here on indigenous art adventures hope you have an amazingly important day of truth and reconciliation and as always may the creator watch over you as long as the sun shines the grass grows and the river flows have a great day bye everyone [Music] you

Channel: Indigenous Art Adventures with Lance Cardinal!

Views: 288

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 7h78MPngckQ

Length: 26min 29sec (1589 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 28 2021