New 150-foot mural coming to downtown Kitchener in July

A new 150-foot mural set to go up on Charles Street in Kitchener next month is not part of the Canada 150 celebrations, the group organizing the art project says.

NerudaArts received $25,000 from the Canada 150 Fund for the mural, but the group'sartistic director Isabel Cisternasaid after consulting with local groups, the plan for the project changed.

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"It was more going to be more about the contributions of multicultural communities than anything else," Cisterna said of the original plan for the mural.

"But when we started to do our consultation, we realized that there was a very important piece that was missing in this narrative."

Including Indigenous voices

Neruda Artsconsulted with the Aboriginal Education Centre at the University of Waterloo and the Aboriginal Student Centre at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Chelsea Powless, a third year Wilfrid Laurier University student who is from Six Nations, was at the consultation.

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"All the Indigenous people in there unanimously agreed on the fact that we aren't celebrating Canada 150," she said.

PowlesssaidNerudaArts and the artists understood the group's stance and respected their wishes.

"The mural was more supposed to be used as a tool to let us to celebrate Indigenous resilience, and that connection that Indigenous people have to the earth that should be respected, especially on the territory we're on now," she said.

Accurate representation

Students, staff and other community members at the consultation gave suggestions for mural designs.

Powless said someone suggested including bundles and rocks to be part of the mural. Bundles can be physical or metaphorical.

"One of the things that they were saying they keep in their bundle is a rock, which grounds them to the earth," she said.

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Cisternasaid they want the mural to accurately reflect Indigenous communities.

"What they are worried about, with great concern, is that they are made into a cartoon character," she said.

The mural will showcase the journey that led to the upcoming Canada Day, including the time before 1867.

"We're not defying the celebration. What we're doing is just changing a little bit the way we look at the celebration," Cisternasaid.

Seven professional artists, with two from Chile, are designing the mural after consultations with the community.

NerudaArts is inviting the public to help paint the mural indoors this Saturday and Sunday at Granite Club in Waterloo.

You can register for free on theNerudaArtswebsite.Cisternasaid children are also welcome to join.

The finished mural will be mounted on Charles Street between Cedar Street andStirlingAvenue next month.