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Protector

“I called it Protector because the orca represents my ancestors (grandparents and great grandparents) surviving the oppression of Canada and the United States and preserving as much of the culture they could. The child in the tail of the orca represents the future generations that the Ancestors protected by fighting to survive and save as much as they could of our culture. It’s bittersweet—my late dad spoke my language fluently, yet never taught me out of fear because he went to Indian Residential School and didn’t want to have happen to me what happened to him. That’s just a needlepoint tip of the iceberg that has happened to Indigenous people in North America. ”

– Maynard Johnny, Jr.