These paintings come from my inner voice, the sifting of my personal experience and my knowledge of our community. I was told once by a Kwanlin Dun Nation member that my paintings are too bright and do not really tell how despairing life is in the north for Aboriginal people. I replied to him that he was right, but I also told him that material wealth was one thing and the spirit of living was yet another thing.  It is because of this spirit that I paint with colour … he could see it then. “This is Our Place” is an exhibition that is more about this spirit than it is about the social reality that engulfs many of our communities. It engages the viewer with two distinct realities, one of the oppressive inherited poverty and one of living through and beyond it. Those who have a chance to view the exhibition will also see that in involves the community as well as the land – our people still depend on the land, it washes us in humbleness and inspires us to continue on.