{"id":50328,"date":"2018-04-05T15:59:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T19:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=50328"},"modified":"2018-07-16T15:35:04","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T19:35:04","slug":"students-create-blanket-in-memory-of-tina-fontaine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/04\/students-create-blanket-in-memory-of-tina-fontaine\/","title":{"rendered":"Students create blanket in memory of Tina Fontaine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Displayed at the front of Michelle Thomas\u2019s classroom was a colourful quilt made up of carefully crafted squares, each with the same common goal \u2014 to honour the memory of Tina Fontaine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Created by students in Brock\u2019s Studies in Indigenous Culture I course, the blanket contains messages of hope and remembrance related to the slain 15-year-old girl, whose blanket-wrapped body was pulled from Winnipeg\u2019s Red River in 2014. Fontaine\u2019s murder renewed a call for a national inquiry into the high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.<\/p>\n

\"Blankets

Students in a Studies in Indigenous Culture I course created a blanket as part of the Blankets for Tina movement in honour of slain teen Tina Fontaine.<\/p><\/div>\n

As part of various rallies across the country, the Blankets for Tina movement was created, encouraging participants to wear a blanket in the teen\u2019s honour to ensure she is not forgotten.<\/p>\n

Fontaine\u2019s powerful story and the justice sought after her death was among several difficult topics tackled by the Indigenous Culture class during the winter term.<\/p>\n

It was while learning about Fontaine that Aboriginal Adult Education student Cassandra Green began to feel an innate connection to the teen. This prompted her to tell her own story \u2014 both as an Indigenous woman and a survivor of sexual violence. Green used the quilt space, as well as the accompanying write up required by each of the 23 participating students, as an opportunity to open up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put myself out there on my square,\u201d she said before describing her design, which also included symbols from her Bear Clan Mohawk and Ojibwe heritage.<\/p>\n

Green was hopeful the project would help to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women and would encourage Canadians to become more informed about the history of Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n

For Brendan Burke, a third-year Public Health student with a minor in Indigenous Studies, the project evoked a number of emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all sat in a circle and spoke about what each piece of the blanket meant to us \u2014 how we were representing Tina, speaking for her and making sure she\u2019s not forgotten,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was very meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burke, who also self-identifies as Indigenous, filled his square with a Tree of Peace to represent the peaceful place Fontaine has now hopefully found herself, while also symbolizing change that is on the horizon for future generations of Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

Thomas said she was inspired to introduce her class to the project after seeing the Blankets for Tina campaign pick up steam on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very moving,\u201d she said, \u201cand helped to give people a sense of responsibility of what they can do to create change, whether they are Indigenous or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas said her students put a lot of thought and effort into their contributions to the project, expressing how Fontaine\u2019s story personally impacted them and what their hopes are for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was really inspiring for them,\u201d she said. \u201cThey understand that it\u2019s important that we remember these stories. We can\u2019t sweep it under the rug; those days are over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon its completion, the blanket was presented to the Tecumseh Centre for Aboriginal Research and Education, where it will eventually be put up on display.<\/p>\n

Thomas hopes the blanket will inspire other Brock students to take an Indigenous Studies course to learn more about Canada\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are always looking for allies,\u201d she said. \u201cWe all need to come together, learn that common history and figure out how we\u2019re going to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Displayed at the front of Michelle Thomas\u2019s classroom was a colourful quilt made up of carefully crafted squares, each with the same common goal \u2014 to honour the memory of Tina Fontaine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":50329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,40,7,6833,1,4],"tags":[6489,215,6488],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50331,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50328\/revisions\/50331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}