midnightinchicago
This Saturday, Elyse, Lewis, and I went to the Whetung Ojibwa Art Gallery on the Curve Lake Native American Reserve in Ontario, Canada.
I am continually impressed with the quality artwork there and I can assure you that all the artists who exhibit in the gallery are very talented individuals. More importantly, their artwork says something and it speaks loudly. It expresses what the artists think, how they feel, what they see, how they see it, what they wish to impart, and so much more.
I have been to the Whetung Ojibwa Art Gallery on many occasions and have on a few of those had the good fortune of meeting Freddy Taylor.
Taylor is a survivor of a bleak time in Canadian — and North American - - history. On the Whetung Website, you can see a synopsis of his life which is better and more succinct than I could write here:
He “spent ten unhappy years at the Mohawk Institute, a Native Residential School, in Brantford, Ontario. He suffered the loss of his native language along with memories of family and background. The cultural differences he found upon returning to Curve Lake at the age of sixteen were too extreme and he remained at odds with his people, the law and himself for years. But when he turned his attention to the art of his people, Freddy Taylor discovered a talent that even years of Residential School had not managed to extinguish. Over time, the angry images into which he poured his outrage and hurt evolved to depict a journey of healing and hope. Now the animals you see in his paintings bring peace and strength to this once-troubled artist.”
Taylor also makes it a point to speak out about the repression he endured during those bad times. He takes the time to speak to school kids about his healing process after years of abuse in the residential school system.
“Some of these kids don’t know what the residential schools were,” Taylor said. “So I explain to them my artwork, how the different animals give me strength. I tell them how the colours cover up the pain.”
Taylor serves as inspiration for anyone who has been stymied by a roadblock in their life. The success he has had with his artwork also serves as a particular reminder to anyone – including autistics — who may have been told that their futures are limited by virtue of birth, circumstances or anything else.
You are only limited in life by what you are willing to believe limits you for the rest of your life.
Autism is a blessing, not a curse, and there is no reason why any Autistic who has been subjected to prejudice, quack cures, bullying, abusive treatments, over-medication, or bad schooling should feel that their life ends with the bad. Freddy Taylor has shown that out of bad can come good and Autistics can find that goodness within themselves.
Know thyself. Embrace thyself. Be a teacher and an inspiration for others. True acceptance begins with self-acceptance and true knowledge comes from self-knowledge.
Freddy Taylor is one of the most knowledgeable, accepting people I have ever had the pleasure to meet.
Thomas D. Taylor
Co-Creator
MIDNIGHT IN CHICAGO
