The Healing Quilt: Blanketing Our Lost Loved Ones
Featuring Indigenous designs from across turtle island as well as local Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh (MST) design, the Star Blanket Mural was a co-creation between many artists and organizations working in communities affected by the fentanyl overdose crisis. The mural was intended as a site of meaning and beauty for the people who live in the Downtown East Side (DTES). It is both a memorial to those who have died during the ongoing crisis and a bright gift for the folks who live there.
Artist, Sharifah Marsden said that each artist had personal reasons for participating in the project. She has family and community members dealing with addictions. She also recognized the mural as an extension of the community’s living space. “The public will continue to add names, pictures, and words for loved ones,” she said. “It’s going to keep evolving.”
Sharifah’s prediction was quite prescient, with the mural scheduled to be covered by a new neighbouring development, The Chinatown Foundation reached out to extend the life of the mural on the construction hoarding of the neighbouring site.
Artist Quotes
“Murals transform a space and uplift people… It’s simple, but it’s real.”
- Sharifah Marsden
Meet the artists
Jerry Whitehead, Cree (left)
https://www.jerrywhitehead.com
Sharifah Marsden, Anishinaabe (ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᒃ) (center)
Corey Larocque, Cree/Gitxan/Haida (right)
Thank you to our partners
The mural was made possible by Culture Saves Lives, Vancouver Mural Festival, Portland Hotel Society, City of Vancouver, Interurban Gallery and the Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts.