By Sarah Stone

PA artist to receive award from Governor General

Sep 20, 2013 | 6:34 AM

A Prince Albert woman is being recognized for her painting entitled “Grandma.”

Catherine Blackburn, 28, will be heading to Rideau Hall in Ottawa in November for the Governor General’s History Awards. Blackburn is the winner in the Senior Arts Category of Historica Canada’s the Aboriginal Arts and Stories contest.

“The award encourages aboriginal youth to produce either a piece of writing or some kind of visual art all about their culture and their heritage and really sort of express their history through those mediums,” said Joanne Dawson, community engagement co-ordinator at Canada’s History Society.

Blackburn is one of four recipients of the national contest that has been recognizing aboriginal youth for the past 10 years.

Dawson said it’s important to bring the winners to Ottawa to allow the public a chance to recognize and celebrate the powerful message of each artists’ of work.

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“It really brings a lot of visibility nationally to what these youths are thinking and feeling and what they have to offer Canada in terms of their history and heritage, so I think it’s almost even more for the people who will be there and who will get to sort of see their work and learn from these youth about what they have to tell us about themselves,” Dawson explained.

Blackburn explored her history as a Dene woman in this piece.

“The piece is called 'Grandma' and I made it a couple years ago when I was travelling,” Blackburn said.

“The idea behind it basically was I wanted to start a body of work that honoured my family and honoured my culture,” she continued, adding this one is the last of four portraits in a series.

The acrylic painting pays tribute to Blackburn’s own grandmother that utilizes a “contemporary-style” of floral design work as a base.

Blackburn said this award and her artwork will hopefully show aboriginal youth that there are a lot of opportunities in the world if you seek them out.

“I hope to be a role model for the younger generations of aboriginal people. There’s a lot of opportunity out there and even within my artwork for sure, I didn’t realize the opportunity it would give me. It’s become more than me being showcased [and] it’s become more than the artwork itself,” she said.

Aboriginal history is something she said needs to be honoured. She hopes the youth will always remember where they came from and what made them who they are.
However, Blackburn also explained it’s important to move on “from a lot of the stuff that’s hurts us” and to “use it in a way to grow from the experience.”

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow