As part of the 2021 Day of Sucwentwecw celebration, a poster contest was held across School District 73 to choose a design that represented the theme of the year. This year’s poster contest winner is Kiona Thompson, a grade 12 student from Norkam. Here is her artist statement.
“Weykt, my name is Kiona Thompson. I am from the Shuswap Indian band; my mom’s name is Jackie Joseph and my dad is Jason Thompson. I have two brothers and I’m the middle child of three. I have been making art for 4 years now, but recently I have been sharing my art more. It’s always so nerve wracking to send art into contests and find out you lost, but this is my first time winning.
“My art was inspired by the teachings I have learned and the stories I have heard. I am lucky to grow up around my culture and my family. The prompt that I was given was culture, history and storytelling. When I think of storytelling, I think of coyote stories and other teachings. When I think of history I see a pit house and how we used to live back when. I think of how we used to live and how we were a community before the settlers and the residential schools. I wanted to bring the legends to life in my art by having some of the stories I learned when I was little. I have the dancing coyote to show the stories coming to life while the dad is telling the stories, but it is open for interpretation. I put so much thought into my art, and I am thankful that you picked my art to display.
“I like to make more cultural art works. When I paint or draw I try to make a statement in my artwork and tell a story. I was also thinking about painting the artwork I drew for the Day of Sucwentwecw to hang up in my room/living room. Painting is my hobby and I see myself making more in the future but I can’t see myself making a career out of it.
“Thank you for choosing me.”
Kiona Thompson
Day of Sucwentwecw Celebrations
Source: SD73
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