June 2012
| A Life's Work by Norman Hall Honourable Mention Norman Hall (Nuxalk) directed this self-portrait taken by his friend, Christine, in Oppenheimer Park where they were painting a teepee together. Norman is hand-stitching a blanket he has been working on for more than 20 years. “It’s filled with all my crests. Eagle, thunderbird, blue whales, and the sun,” which speaks to his First Nations roots in Bella Coola, B.C. “This cotton, it’s thousands of stitches. And lots of mother of pearl buttons. It’s taken me 20, 25 years to work on it, as long as it’s taken me to grow my hair!” In addition to embroidery work, Norman is an enthusiastic artist who works in a variety of media, including painting, iron castings, carving, pottery, weaving, and making beaded baskets. Norman Hall has lived in Vancouver for more than 30 years. His mother taught him embroidery and he learned to draw as a student of the residential school system, where he was also mistreated and beaten. “When Harper apologized, it meant something to the survivors… and I cried because [of] the people that didn’t make it,” he says of the Prime Minister’s 2008 apology to survivors of the federally-funded residential school program that mistreated generations of First Nations children and separated them from their families. Norman honours his First Nations heritage through prolific artwork. Two of his photographs made the top 40 in the 2011 photography contest. From the Hope in Shadows collection |
