This is Art, Truth, and Reconciliation, the reality of residential schools illuminated by indigenous languages, ways of seeing, and resilience.

In retrospect, when I look back, and I look back at an exhibition I curated in 1992 called Indigena, the whole point, uh, of that project was to allow indigenous artists and communities to speak for themselves rather than to be spoken about, which had long happened before that.

And this book is that same fight.

It's aimed at, very specifically at one thing: what indigenous art has to tell us about the residential and day school system, and about what came after it.

I'm Gerald McMaster, and I'm Nehiyaw, Plains Cree and Blackfoot, Plains Cree on my mother's side.

I grew up on the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Treaty 6 territory, which is located in the North Central part of Saskatchewan.

I spent most of my working life moving between being an artist and later becoming a curator.

In the book, Gerald draws on Plains Cree terms rather than Western modes of thought as the primary means of engaging with Indigenous artworks.

He was a curator at the AGO, but he's also a, an amazing artist in his own right.

My position at the Art Gallery of Ontario was the head of Canadian art.

So I was familiar with both Canadian art and all sorts of indigenous art.

And so I went over to see the exhibition.

It was really quite interesting.

Mr. Hearn was not present.

At the time, I didn't know who he was.

His painting was dated to 1974, and that raised a red flag for Gerald.