The Feather Project recognizes the tragedy of Native American boarding schools

Maggie Kerrigan spends more time poring over a book than most people. The Virginia Beach artist, who creates sculptures by carving and altering discarded books, can spend weeks with one bound pile of paper.

Last year, she picked up “This Tender Land,” a novel by William Kent Krueger, and never imagined the influence it would have.

The resulting exhibition, “The Feather Project,” has collected over 2,500 handmade paper feathers from around the country in a community art project to bring awareness to the tragedy of Native American boarding schools. The installation will be on display at the Virginia Beach Art Center through Nov. 13.

“I really didn’t think that I was the kind of person who could take on a project like that, but it just wouldn’t leave me alone,” Kerrigan said recently, taking a break from hanging feathers from the ceiling of the Brock Gallery.

As she read more about the thousands of children forced to attend the schools, Kerrigan discovered the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. She learned that children were often abused and neglected at the schools, which were intended to assimilate Indigenous people into white American culture and convert them to Christianity.

No one knows exactly how many boarding schools existed or how many children lived in them — or died. The Healing Coalition has identified at least 357 schools in the United States going back more than 100 years, ending in the 1960s. Some sources say the schools operated for closer to 200 years and estimate there were nearly 500.

The children were assigned new names and punished for using their real names or the languages and traditions of the communities they left. Often, their clothes and other small pieces of home — such as beloved dolls — were burned. The schools often were supported largely by public and religious charities, with poor nutrition and medical care. Many children never came home. In many cases, their families never learned what happened to them.

“That was the thing that impacted me the most,” Kerrigan said. “Thinking how someone could send their child away to school, and then their kid never comes home, and no one tells them what happened. There’s a question mark next to their name.”

Some of the handmade feathers came with heartbreaking stories, she said, including one from a woman who takes classes at the Virginia Beach Art Center. She asked her stepfather, who is Chippewa, and some of his family to make feathers with her. She had never known that some of the family had attended the schools.

The saddest part, Kerrigan said, was that the family didn’t seem to consider the story worth talking about.

“To have been marginalized to such a degree that they don’t believe there’s any value to their story,” Kerrigan said, “It’s a whole culture and community of people that was severed and lost.”

“The Feather Project” is the centerpiece of a larger community project called “Aware” which the art center plans to repeat annually. The main topic will change each year, but Aware ‘22 focuses on Indigenous communities, asking people to reflect on questions such as whether they know the history of the land on which they live.

Other artists have contributed submissions that explore and celebrate Native American culture in the region and there will be two events. On Nov. 4, Nikki Bass from the Nansemond Indian Nation spoke on land recognition and connection with local Indigenous communities. On Nov. 13, local resident Joanne Faulkner will speak about her family’s experience with the Native American Boarding School in Hampton.

“What we’re trying to do here is just to get people to pay attention to the fact that this happened and to support efforts to bring about healing,” Kerrigan said.

Katrina Dix, 757-222-5155, katrina.dix@virginiamedia.com.

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If you go

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday; noon to 4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 4-13

Where: 532 Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach

Cost: Free, with free parking

Details: artcentervb.org