southern ontario’s first residential school
has a long stretch of pavement leading up to its
doors. It’s a powerful sight for Sherlene Bomberry,
who attended the Mohawk Institute Residential
School in Brantford, Ontario, from 1966 until it
closed in 1970. Now, she volunteers as a tour
guide at the site, now called the Woodland
Cultural Centre. “The hardest part for me, going
back, was walking up the laneway,” she says.
In September, artists and residential school
survivors travelled up that path for the Mush
Hole Project, a three-day performance and installation. The project was designed as a response
to the work of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission and the calls to action it released last
year. The project title comes from the school’s
nickname – so-called by students because of the
“mush” they were served at meals beginning
Truth and Reconciliation
Residential school serves as canvas
for multi-artist installation
Un allié dans la guérison des maladies mentales
UNB brings the toll of war to the streets
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White Privilege Symposium looks at race in Canada
Campus Ici et là Here and there
shortly after its opening in 1834.
Andrew Houston is a founding Mush Hole
collaborator and a theatre professor at the Uni-
versity of Waterloo. “Site-specific work is about
using the site as a resource for animation,” he
says. “You’re finding ways to represent it, to bring
it to life.”
The event offered tours by residential school
survivors during which participants heard survi-
vors’ stories and encountered work by 35 artists.
Naomi Johnson, a Mohawk artist and artistic director at Woodland, used the laneway for
her piece – a Thanksgiving address written in
Mohawk, a language she does not speak. “For
me, not having my language is a direct impact
of the residential school system,” she says.
– anqi shen
Mush Hole Project at former Mohawk Institute Residential School foregrounds Indigenous experiences
Nathan Adler’s multimedia
art installation, We Don’t
Speak Ojibway, But we Have
Mattresses, appeared at
the Mush Hole Project.
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