Passing on traditional artistic techniques and customs to youth is the priority for Clayton Gauthier, a First Nations man of the Beaver Clan.
Gauthier, who grew up in Prince George, is teaching students at the Centre for Learning Alternatives, located at the old John McInnis school, as part of the School District 57's Aboriginal Education program.
"I am sharing my gift with the community," said Gauthier about the new Aboriginal Visual Arts program put in place this year. "Through the program I'm teaching culture through art. It's just not art I'm teaching, I'm teaching our traditional ways and talking about the meaning behind the animals and a respect for the land and all that stuff. The art is one element that engages the youth and the other stuff comes, right?"
To that end, Gauthier is hosting an art unveiling at the Learning Centre on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to display the eight by four foot carving he and about 30 students have created depicting the Lheidli T'enneh clans. To celebrate there will be a traditional feast to honour the territory of the Lheidli T'enneh people. Gauthier is expecting about 150 people and hoping to make it an annual event.
"Through this process some of the youth are starting to understand the clan system and this feast is a teaching tool," said Gauthier. "I've been planning this feast for about two months now and it's really important to me that we teach the youth about how much respect is involved in our culture. So we're unveiling this for the school and the logo in the middle of the art piece symbolizes the Wolf Pack Centre, part of the Aboriginal Education Program and that logo has a story to it, too, that will be explained at the unveiling."
During the experience, Gauthier taught the students to use the tools to carve, how to read the wood, carve the wood and learn about the clan system and their identity, explained Gauthier.
The bottom line of the carving has native syllabics that means together, he added.
