The Huron County Museum in Goderich, Ont., is launching a new mural created by Anishinaabe artist Jeannette Ladd. Photo courtesy Huron County Museum
The Huron County Museum in Goderich, Ont., is launching a new mural created by Anishinaabe artist Jeannette Ladd.
The museum will be holding a drop-in event on March 9, to meet Ladd and learn more about her artwork, which is prominently featured in the lobby.
Ladd is an Anishinaabe-kwe from Saugeen First Nation in the Saugeen Ojibway territory. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. Throughout her life, Ladd has always been drawn to expressing her thoughts and experiences through art.
“I love creating pieces of art; it gives me an outlet to express myself, and I love learning and working on pieces to honour my culture,” she says. “Through the mural, I wanted to show that our love and respect for Mother Earth, Turtle Island, is necessary to ensure that we have a world for future generations. The piece shows that we are all connected to the sun, moon, stars, nature, and water, which need to work in harmony to provide a good life for everyone and everything.”
The mural was commissioned by the museum, who specifically sought out an Indigenous artist for the project, to build on their goal of providing space to share local Indigenous culture.
“Indigenous people have called this land home for millennia and the Huron County Museum is focused on growing our understanding of local Indigenous cultures and histories by providing space to share their stories,” says Elizabeth French-Gibson, curator of the Huron County Museum and Historic Gaol.
To celebrate the mural, prints of Ladd’s art will be available for purchase in the museum’s gift shop, along with Memengwaa: The Monarch Butterfly, a children’s book and colouring book illustrated by Ladd and written by her mother, Dorothy.
