Miranda Jimmy isn’t pretending to be Indiana Jones but she does have an important history question that someone out there might be able to answer: Who is the boy in the photo?
The organizer with Reconciliation in Solidarity Edmonton is trying to fill in a huge gap of information that somehow got lost in the historical record. When Edmonton’s former historian laureate, Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail, was going through the City of Edmonton Archives to find photographs as research for an art exhibit, this one and several others were selected although this was the only one that doesn’t have a story attached to it.
“This was the photograph that we knew the least about,” she began, pointing out that it was part of a series depicting scenes from when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Edmonton in June 1939. Thousands of people attended the parade along what is now called Kingsway Avenue, which was renamed to mark the occasion.
The boy is wearing some finely decorated clothes while standing in front of some tipis, a small crowd of family or other First Nations members in the background.
“We don’t really know what was going on that caused the photographer to come and take photographs, and we don’t know if this boy was posed or if this was a moment captured and what the experience of him was. So given that it’s 80 years old, there’s a possibility that he’s still alive and that he has a story to tell about this moment in time.”
If the boy has since passed away then there’s still a chance he shared his story with others who can recount it for Jimmy.
What’s even more interesting is that there might even be a personal connection to her and her community of the Thunderchild First Nation in Saskatchewan. She noted some observers have speculated the drawings on the tipi indicate that the boy might be Blackfoot, while others say he is Cree because of the beadwork on his clothes. She was told someone found very similar beadwork on a collar and tie (just like what the boy is wearing) that were donated to a museum in Montreal. This might prove to be a valuable piece of the puzzle.
“It turns out that that particular beadwork is from my home community so whether there’s a tie from Thunderchild to this boy is something that I’m exploring to see if maybe he’s a relative.”
Jimmy can be contacted via email to [email protected]. The art exhibit, Reconciling Edmonton, is also on display at the Art Gallery of St. Albert until March 30. There is a notebook available for people to leave comments or request more information about any of the photographs or paintings on display.
Jimmy asked the public to come forward if they think they can help her solve this history treasure hunt.
“All it’ll take is one person to give one fact that will totally crack the case open.”
