An artist goes back to school

Chantelle Trainor-Matties entered the colouring contest without thinking she would win.

The contest asked students to colour a Jeep on a piece of paper. The winners would get a ride in an actual Jeep in the parking lot of John MacLure Community School. It was 1997, and six-year-old Trainor-Matties loved art.

She expressed herself through art, so when she received her colouring sheet, she let her imagination run rampant. She coloured in the wheels, windows, and door frames, wondering whether her design would captivate the attention of the judges.

Years later, remembering the day she rode around the parking lot in that Jeep with other contest winners, she wishes she kept that colouring sheet. Because little did Trainor-Matties know, she would return to John MacLure and inspire another generation of students, while also paying homage to her Indigenous heritage.

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