'Getting it on canvas': Yukon artist paints to heal residential school memories

Mary Caesar's gallery show opens this weekend in Whitehorseand sheexpects there may be a few tears.

"I get a lot of strong reactions," says Caesar of her work.

Caesar is Kaska Denaand amember of the Liard First Nation. She was brought to Lower Post residential school in B.C. as a five-year oldchild.

Her painting recalls physical and psychological abuse.

"Even from the first day I stepped foot into that school I felt already afraid, abandoned. I felt terrified," says Caesar, who lives in Watson Lake, Yukon.

"We were lined up and I wasn't allowed to speak to my brother or cousins for the four years I was there. If we were caught speaking to the boys we were punished. We were punished in a lot of humiliating ways. I was always getting punched in the head, punched in the ears. My hair was pulled, my ears were pulled."

'Our stories need to be told'

Caesar has been painting her experiences for many years. She is a regular exhibitor at Whitehorse'sAdka Cultural Festival, but has never had a gallery show like this before in the city.

"For me it's a way of healing," she says. "It's a way of letting it go. Letting go of the memories and getting it on canvas."

Many paintings feature a girl in a very straight, bowl-likehaircut.She says the work is autobiographical, but that's not necessarily her in the painting.

"It's me, but the thing is it could be other children. Because we all had the same haircuts. The girls had similar helmet haircutsthat was shaped like a bowl," she says. "I guess that was how they tried to take the Indian out of the child."

Over the years Caesar has seen people cry at her showings.

"I get a lot of strong reactions, both from the native and white communities. Some residential school survivors, when they see my paintings, it brings up memories for them. It brings up feelings. And I understand because I know how they feel. Some non-native people just get shocked when they see my paintings. They get really emotional and I get emotional too."

Caesar says it's been tough at times, but sheiscommitted to continue painting.

"Ittriggers memories in people. People react to my paintings. But our story has to be told. A lot of residential school survivors that went to Lower Post residential school never survived, never lived to tell their story."

The exhibit, called My Healing Journey, isnow featured at Whitehorse's Arts Underground gallery andruns until Sept.30.