What is the WISDOM mural?

It is a mural project I conceived, secured funding, produced, and engaged the community myself. I dreamed about it when I understood the depth of the Indigenous teachings in regards of their connection and respect for Mother Nature. Indigenous teachings from all over the world invite us to connect and be one with her in a conscious way, to see her as the source of life, to appreciate her unlimited gifts and to respect her. 

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This is the topic of the WISDOM mural and also the topic of the round tables that took place in January 2021 with the participation of Ottawa based knowledge keepers from Algonquin, Inuit, Métis, Afro Caribbean, Latin American, Asian, African, and Oceanian cultures. Their teachings are the inspiration for the concept of the mural that was painted on 48 (8x4 feet) panels along with members of the community at large in Ottawa. The mural, was installed on August 5th 2021 covering six stories of the big south wall of the Ottawa Community Housing building located at 1365 Bank St in Ottawa but we are still looking for funding to cover all the costs and labor of two years of work..

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The creation process

Although the pandemic delayed the project for a year and I faced a multitude of challenges, I worked tirelessly and steadily for eight months after which the mural was installed.

The support cf the community of Ottawa,, trough donations and volunteer work, Ottawa Community Housing, City Councillor Jean Cloutier, Catholic Centre for Immigrants (supporting all religions) and Ottawa South Community Resource Centre was unbelievable. The project was awarded with grants from The City of Ottawa, Ottawa Community Foundation and Ontario Arts Council and the community generously donated through our Gofundme Campaign.

Together we made the WISDOM mural a reality. THANK YOU all for your trust and generosity! 

The funds raised were used to compensate the Indigenous Elders and worldwide knowledge keepers, Claire Brascoupé, the Algonquin Emerging Artist that was my mentee during the creation of the mural as well as for social media services, T-shirts for volunteers and collaborators, materials, installation costs and professional artist compensation.

 

This project was divided in two phases: phase one:  The online world wide knowledge keepers round tables that took take place during the month of November and December 2020: "ONE WITH NATURE, ONE TOGETHER, Teachings from around the world I and II", followed by the creation of the mural concept inspired on these conversations.  Phase two: the mural production and community painting sessions that took place from January to September 2021 under strict social distancing regulations. By May 25 2021, I was working on my own and waiting for Covid restrictions to let us paint together at the Wisdom Mural headquarters in Nepean. After some weeks I had finish painting the whole background of the mural and at some point I was able to work with groups of 5 volunteers of the community at a time.

BIG thanks to Visual artists Mowafak Alrasam and Bekie Tatoo, for their amazing talent and engagement working on a volunteer basis trough the whole mural production process. The painting process was finalized at the end of July and the mural installed on a beautiful sonny day the first weeks of August.

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