Students and staff at Clarence Sansom School recently completed a collaborative Truth and Reconciliation art project.

Our installation is titled Reconciliation Grows Through Us and centers around a large three-dimensional relief sculpture of a trembling aspen tree. Trembling aspen was selected as an important native Alberta tree, while its roots, branches, and interconnected leaves provide a meaningful visual representation of learning, growth, and community. 

The message at the heart of the installation is:

“Rooted in truth, we grow toward reconciliation.”

As part of the project, students and staff reflected in their homerooms and contributed coloured aspen leaves in response to three prompts:

LEARN- What have you learned about truth and reconciliation?

GRATITUDE- What are you grateful for, as a treaty person?

ACTION- What will you do to help reconciliation grow?

The individual leaves now come together to form the canopy of the tree. Each leaf represents an individual voice, while together they create a collective reflection of our school community’s learning and our shared responsibility to continue moving toward reconciliation.

The photographs below show the completed installation and student contributions. This meaningful project demonstrates how art, student voice, and learning can come together to make reconciliation visible within a school community.