Indigenous art - Seven Sacred Teachings series

This is a series of 7 Native Canadian art paintings based on the seven sacred teachings. It is produced by Donna Langhorne, Anishinaabe artist based out of Air Ronge, Saskatchewan. Each painting is a representation of one sacred teaching, one spirit animal and an issue that Indigenous people live with today. This series will be accompanied by a write-up that you can print and frame alongside the 11"x14" prints of the artwork. These paintings are also available individually and as originals in this webstore. The originals are much larger sizes.

The descriptions for these paintings follow:

Love [Eagle]: For Residential School Survivors

The emotional and cultural scars of residential school experience run deep. This Vision depicts many of the tell-tale signs of that trauma - the attire of the students, their religious indoctrination, the muting of their voice and loss of language, their cut hair, the memorialization through hand prints and testimony markers for those who did not survive. 

Respect [Buffalo]: For Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

This Vision connects the teaching of Respect, symbolized by the life-sustaining Buffalo, as a means of healing the deep personal and cultural trauma inflicted on Indigenous women and girls. It teaches us the importance of dignifying these vulnerable women who were treated by their predators as faceless, nameless, dehumanized objects. 

Humility [Wolf]: For Our Cultural Sovereignty

Sovereignty is an expression of self-determination and cultural autonomy. The damage at the hands of colonial forces to cultural heritage, including loss of language, artifacts, ceremony and traditions, has greatly undermined our capacity to act as sovereign Nations. The future of our cultural integrity requires earnest community effort and individual humility. Why humility? The ways of the wolf help us to understand and guide us forward.  

Honesty [Raven]: For Victims of Addiction

So many of our families have suffered from the devastating force of addiction. So many of our youth continue to be caught in its destructive web, whether through drugs or alcohol. 

Wisdom [Beaver]: For our Leaders

Wisdom is the application of knowledge for beneficial outcomes. The Beaver well exemplifies this quality. It uses its teeth to acquire the material for habitat construction, and modifies its ecology in the process. Failure to do so renders its overgrown teeth useless and puts its well-being in jeopardy. In this Vision, the Beaver is the inspiration that preserves the integrity of our leadership - our chiefs, elders and knowledge keepers - in the ongoing battle for sovereignty and the protection of our many traditions. 

Truth [Turtle]: For our Environment

The Turtle is considered a truth teller because its shell mirrors the realities of the female four-week cycle and thirteen lunar month experience. The parallel truth of this Vision is clearly brandished, and echoed through the serpentine temptation of greed, industrial pollution, commercial exploitation of the environment, and the complicity of Government. Spurred to action by our women, the silhouetted figures rise up in protest, idling no more, and draw strength in their love for justice from the Eagle feather.

Courage [Bear]: For Our Future

How do we cultivate the courage to face our fears and overcome the barriers that hold us back from moving forward, individually and collectively? The Bear is a powerful symbol of courage as it fights to protect its own. In this Vision, the spirit of Courage leads us from the static canvas to a future of hope and integrity. As it does so it protects the vulnerable by absorbing whatever threatens safety and well-being, as represented by the serpent. All Sacred Teachings are at work here … together they form the foundation, the imprint, to lift us out of our cultural doldrums and into a future of restoration, revitalization, and reconciliation.