Telling the Truth: The Mohawk Institute Approaches a Milestone

This is a profoundly important project, not only for Six Nations of the Grand River and the Indigenous communities whose children were placed at the Mohawk Institute, but for all within Canadian society who seek understanding of the impacts and legacy of Indian residential schools. Given Canada’s national mandate arising from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s extensive research, including its 94 Calls to Action, the significance of this work cannot be overstated. 

Within the Niagara Region Mr. Johnson served as Co-chair of Landscape of Nations: The Six Nations & Native Allies Commemorative Memorial, unveiled on October 2, 2016, in Queenston Heights Park, and was instrumental in the development of several subsequent legacy spaces and public artworks including the First Nations Peace Monument in Thorold, Voices of Freedom Park in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and the modern art masterwork Curtain Call, installed on the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines. He is also active on additional forthcoming historically and culturally important public spaces that will be dedicated to Indigenous peoples, including Misko-Aki: Confluence of Cultures, a permanent exhibition detailing Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabek, Métis, and Haudenosaunee history and contemporary life in the Muskoka region, and updating of the Daphne Cockwell Gallery dedicated to First peoples’ art and culture at the Royal Ontario Museum. 

Prior to this relatively recent activity, Mr. Johnson was the Associate Director for Museum Programs at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. The Museum Programs Group was the museum’s largest organizational group, structured across two fully programmed facilities in Washington D.C. and New York, encompassing exhibitions, education, interpretive services, publications, film and media production, seminars and symposia, and visual and performing arts programs. During his tenure at the museum, he successfully supervised popular and critically acclaimed exhibits ranging in cost from $15,000 to $5.65 million representing myriad orientations from ethnography and history to contemporary arts. One of his most popular exhibitions, Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians In Popular Culture, was an art and history exhibit as told through the biographies of Indigenous artists whose contributions helped to shape several music genres since the mid 20th Century. This exhibit served as the basis for the Sundance, Hot Docs, and Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television award-winning documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World, that has inspired the live concert performances curated for Celebration of Nations.

As an accomplished artist, researcher, and writer Rick serves as an Indigenous Innovations Specialist, currently advising on a number of projects for Mohawk College. Rick is a citizen of the Tuscarora Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, residing at the Grand River Territory.

After moving across Canada as an office manager for a company from Brantford, I came back to Six Nations where I learned I could go back to school (at age 35), education paid for. I became an elementary school teacher and taught for 28 years. Currently, I volunteer as the Secretary/Co-Treasurer of the Mohawk Village Memorial Park, a not-for-profit, charity organization run mainly by residential school survivors. The Park is dedicated to the memory of all the children who attended the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School in Brantford over its 142 years. The Park is being constructed as a positive, peaceful place for all people to visit. 

I am also a Board member of the Survivors’ Secretariat. This group is instrumental in developing the ground search protocols and looking for missing children and unmarked graves of children from the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School. 

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has an advisory board, on which I sit. This Board, Na-mi-quai-ni-mak, allocates funds to Indigenous groups across Canada for commemoration activities. 

“Good design is not an ego driven activity; it is a collective process that an entire team should feel ownership over.”  

Nick’s enthusiasm for his projects is evident in all of his work. He works closely with project stakeholders and pursues thoughtful design solutions that satisfy the many, often competing, features of each exhibit project. After over a decade of experience designing exhibits, Nick understands the importance of creating a strong aesthetic vision that will bring a story to life and create an emotional engagement with visitors.  

After studying Biology at the University of Ottawa and Environmental Design at Dalhousie University, Nick graduated with a Masters of Architecture from the University of Toronto. He started his work life as a set builder, graduated to a designer and fabricator, and finally to senior exhibition designer at WeatherstonBruer. Nick has overseen projects in Canada, the United States, and abroad. 

The “Walk for the Park” event on September 16, 2023 is in honour of John Elliott and all children who felt it necessary to run away from the Mohawk Institute. At the age of 17, John started working in the construction and painting fields. After sixty three years of work, John finally retired and eventually returned home to Six Nations. Currently, he is a director with the Mohawk Village Memorial Park and the Survivors’ Secretariat.