Community Arts & Cultural Events
Monday, August 30 is the last day to view this delightful exhibition!
C’mon down to the Hearth Gallery!
Open daily 11 - 5 pm
(closed Tuesdays)
View the online gallery HERE
Coming soon:
Artists In Our Midst - Eleanor Rosenberg reads her new book Spell of the Coast
On the Edge of Beauty opens Wednesday, September 1, 2021 and runs until September 27.
Join us for the Artist pARTy on Saturday, September 4, 6 - 8 pm.
CALL TO ARTISTS
Ways To Get Involved:
Follow us on Social Media - Following, sharing and engaging with our social media will help this initiative gain traction. The links to our social media are directly below!
Donating to the Campaign - All donations will go directly to artists and providing supplies for cleanups.
Become an artist for Diving In - If you live and work in one of the participating areas, are interested in raising awareness about the health of our waterways, and are creative, you might be an artist we are looking for! Please reach out to your respective Arts Council for more details.
VOLUNTEER WITH THE HEARTH
Stay connected to the creative Bowen community by volunteering to the Hearth.
Our volunteers are an essential part of our organization and we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them. Becoming a volunteer allows you to work directly with the Hearth and help us run events, workshops, and more.
Healing heARTs Story
A storytelling series for our community to reflect and learn about this painful time in our country’s history, and to recognize and acknowledge the survivors and their families - and the Indigenous communities and their leaders. We plan to share a series of those stories of hope and healing through the arts, and the many actions we can take for the future leading up to National Day For Truth And Reconciliation on September 30, 2021
Dawn Smoke
Alderville First Nation, Ontario
Anishnawbe
Portrait by Ron Woodall
I hated school...I hated every day I attended...was the only kid of colour there...was bullied, berated, beat up constantly , demeaned , they nicknamed me zombie...or totally ignored, invisible...
I skipped classes more than I attended...very seldom did anyone care...I spent my days in the bush surrounding the suburbs we had moved to. I’d go downtown to the museum once a week. I’d sit in on classes at U of T. I’d go to the huge library I discovered. I’d go and watch movies or sit in the park people watching or I’d go to the courts and sit in on cases and listen and learn. I loved learning. My environment made it impossible to learn in a normal fashion. There was no space for me there, no room, no air to breathe. I was constantly reminded I didn’t belong; how stupid I was; but all Indians were stupid. This was in Don Mills, Ontario. We were the only ones I ever heard of who had a cross burnt on our lawn, scooped and adopted by a Mohawk and an Irishwoman and living surrounded by white suburban bigots. It was a trial but doubt if it would have been different anywhere else.
When the 70’s came I lived in a house of Indigenous activists; lots of children. One day one of those kids was upset and said they didn’t want to go to school anymore. We all talked about it for a few days. This was a serious time since we knew exactly why our Child was upset. We’d all been in similar situations.
We pulled all the kids out of school and the following year had set up our own program in downtown Toronto - Wandering Spirit Survival School. The Harpers spearheaded it and we had Elders and Language teachers and Story tellers and Feasts were held and Culture emphasized starting every morning in a circle with Prayers and Sharings and Smudge.
In the summer we had survival camp where the kids were taken to a Rez and camp was set up to teach ceremony and hunting and growing and survival and living and thinking how to always live a good life and honour the Earth, our Ancestors and the Four-legged; how to remember to be grateful and to be community minded and caring. Some of these kids never had started a fire never mind preparing food. We also taught history, reading ,writing, social studies and all things to help them survive in the white mans world and we had certified teachers for that part of schooling; compassionate natures, humans who participated in all our activities, humans who showed they loved Our People and Our Children.
Seeds are for Sharing
(available at the Hearth Gallery Gift Shop)
This is a memoir - written from the Indigenous perspective - and a manifesto for the Aboriginal people of Turtle Island; for justice and for protecting Mother Earth. Torn from her family as a baby, Dawn survived trauma, suicide and loneliness. Dawn found magic in Creation as her life evolved while living off the land in the Ottawa valley, prospecting in the Yukon, co-creating the first Native Women’s Resource Centre in Canada, and joining the fight for justice at Oka. You 'wanna' know about Native people? Talk reconciliation? This is a look at the heart and soul of a strong woman who found wisdom while searching for her family and meaning in self-sufficiency.
Author website
Friends & Lovers
Art Show
in the Garden
Friday, September 3 - Sunday, September 5
(Weather Permitting)
1160 Adams Road.