Aboriginal - Girls Action Foundation

less fortunate. The greatest leaders are not corrupt they want to make the world a
better place.
My mother was the best example of what a mom should be. When she passed away
from cancer I turned to my aunt for support. My aunt has always been there for me
and my sister. She grew up poor
and with an absent father. Her
mother, my grandmother raised
three children alone. My aunt takes
negative things and turns them into
something positive. She’s travelled
the world from France, Greece, Spain,
Honduras, The Cayman Islands, Hawaii,
all over Mexico, Bali and she is now
planning a trip to Prague. She’s an
Ironwoman, who has competed in five
Ironman Triathlons’s as well as over 13
marathons and 9 half marathons. She works for the Aboriginal policing directorate as
an office manager and is the reason I gained knowledge about my Native ancestry. She
educated me that my great-great-great-great grandfather was in the bytown museum in
Ottawa “John Peter Pruden” who married “Nancy Henry” and she took me to the Métis
society to register as a Métis citizen. She has made me very proud to say that part of
my heritage is Native. She has taught me to think positively and to forgive and to forget,
two lessons that are very difficult for people to learn.
The premise for this painting is a mother and a child, but it could very well represent a
grandmother and a grandchild, or an aunt and her niece.
92 Carli Harris