Kahnawake Artist Painting Unveiled at the Anna Laberge Hospital

A painting by Artist Carrie Jo Taylor is now hanging at the Anna Laberge Hospital in Chateauguay. It has been placed in the spiritual room of the hospital. The installation is to help reinforce Anna Laberge’s commitment to being an inclusive institution that welcomes all, without exception. And that it is a place welcoming to their neighbours from Kahnawake.

Valerie Diabo is the Executive Director of the KMHC on opening doors with surrounding communities:

“The painting here today is a start of inclusion and recognizing people of different cultures, different languages, different spiritualities, so having our painting here makes us proud, it’s a place where our community will feel comfortable to come and words if they need  to have words. And it comes with a book, that talks about the peace pipe and how the peace pipe is part of peace and giving things and also acknowledging the forward direction  to which we all come from and give the community a feel that it’s a safe place to come.”

Diabo says this offering has been in the making for months:

“It started a while back to have the discussion on how we may be able to contribute, so we looked at this painting as the contribution into start opening those doors and making sure that our community members had a safe place to come at Anna Laberge when they are receiving care and their families.”

The painting is a gift from the KMHC. It portrays one of the book collections The Secret of the White Buffalo, in which Molly Sky (an elder from Kahnawake) is an important character and also the painting’s model. The authorship is also from Carrie-Jo Taylor. The name of the donated painting is ‘Enwá:ton skèn:nen iowerarátie’s ne: kaié:ri nikawerá:ke tánon shakorihwakwénienhste,”(‘May the four directions of the universe live in peace and mutual respect’), and it was painted in 1993-1994.