Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives

Menu

Author: Jennifer Sauter

Turtle Island Research Cluster Co-lead Duncan McCue awarded $57,900 Canada Council for the Arts Grant

Categoriesawards, research clustersPosted on
  • Image gallery image

We are very pleased to announce Turtle Island Research Cluster Co-lead Duncan McCue has been awarded a Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) grant of $57,900 to expand the production of his graphic novel project to over one hundred pages.

McCue, an Anishinaabe journalist and professor at Carleton University, is writing the graphic novel in collaboration with acclaimed Anishinaabe artist Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley. Tentatively titled “Indians Do Cry: A Hockey Survivance Story,” the narrative tells the true story of a father and son, George Kenny and Mike Auksi, from the Lac Seul First Nation in northern Ontario. Revolving around testimony from Kenny and Auksi, “Indians Do Cry” explores the impacts of Indian Residential Schools, intergenerational trauma, and the healing power of the game of hockey.

McCue’s successful project is entitled “Graphic Art in Genocide and Human Rights (Turtle Island Cluster)” and the grant was confirmed in August 2024. It is being funded through the Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples program of the CCA.

The grant funds will be used to compensate Pawis-Steckley for an additional 70 pages of artwork and McCue for his extra time involved in research, interviewing and authorship of the extended text. Funds will also be used for research materials, travel and counselling, if necessary.

Initial interviews and the draft manuscript for “Indians Do Cry” are complete. Pawis-Steckley is currently in the production phase of the book’s artwork, which is expected to be finished in the summer of 2025.

Check out the Turtle Island Research Cluster Page for more updates.

Publication of Barbara Yelin’s ‘Emmie Arbel. The Color of Memory’

Categoriesbook launch, events, newsPosted on

We are delighted to announce the publication of Barbara Yelin’s graphic novel ‘Emmie Arbel. Die Farbe der Erinnerung’ (Emmie Arbel. The Color of Memory) documenting her extensive memory work with Emmie Arbel.

Born in Holland in 1937, Emmie Arbel was deported with her Jewish family in 1942 and survived the Nazi concentration camps Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen as a child. Her parents and grandparents were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.

Emmie Arbel now lives near Haifa, Israel. She often travels to Germany to speak as a contemporary witness. Although her childhood was marked by death, speechlessness, abuse and loneliness, she looks back on a life full of rebellion, self-empowerment and humour. In her constant effort to bring her memories out of the silence, the consequences of the Holocaust become visible – in her life, with her family, in every single day.

Barbara Yelin’s graphic novel is based on her personal encounters and numerous intensive conversations with Emmie Arbel. It is a continuation of the first collaboration, and includes 40 pages already published in the anthology “Aber ich leben” (CH Beck) (“But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust” (University of Toronto Press) from 2022.

Edited by Charlotte Schallié and Alexander Korb, the graphic novel will be published on November 6, 2023 and is available to purchase from Reprodukt Publishing.

Reviews and Mentions

Find the article here (German only).

“For her, drawing, Yelin once said, is a process of searching, recognizing and carefully approaching reality. In ‘Emmie Arbel – The Colour of Memory’ she masterfully shows where this process can lead.”

Lars von Törne, 2023

Wiesbaden Kunsthaus hosts “But I Live: Remembering the Holocaust” – September 14 – November 26, 2023

Categoriesevents, exhibits, newsPosted on

The exhibition “But I Live: Remembering the Holocaust” is being hosted at the Wiesbaden Kunsthaus from September 14th to November 26th, 2023. Special thanks to Regine Meldt for hosting the opening night with the Kamp brothers Rolf and Nico, Gilad Seliktar, and curator Jakob Hoffmann!

More information can be found by selecting the exhibition program poster and on the website.

A curator’s tour of the exhibition took place on Thursday, September 21st at 5:00 pm with Jakob Hoffmann. The Kunsthaus also created a short film about the exhibition, featured on their YouTube Channel: