The AIRS Art & Education Society was formalized in 2024 by Survivors from the Alberni Indian Residential School to further their goal of bringing their childhood paintings into schools and public spaces as a means of educating Canadians about the ongoing legacy of the Residential School System in Canada. The paintings were repatriated to Survivors in 2013 through a repatriation project led by Dr. Andrea Walsh at the University of Victoria, along with her colleagues, Elders, and students from university. The Society’s constitution reads: The A.I.R.S. Survivors Art and Education Society supports and delivers opportunities for Alberni Indian Residential School Survivors and their families to participate in artistic, educational, and social gatherings with a focus on education and healing from the legacy of residential schools in Canada.

• 2008-2010

  Artist and volunteer-teacher Robert Aller died in 2008. The collection of paintings he cared for from the extra-curricular A.I.R.S. art class were gifted to the University of Victoria by his family. Faculty, students, and Elders at the university begin work to document the collection of paintings for names of students and information about Robert Aller.

  

• 2012

  A.I.R.S. Survivors lead efforts to return paintings to Survivors and their families with UVIC faculty, Elders, and students. The paintings are shown at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Regional Event in Victoria to raise awareness of their agenda to return the art.

  

• 2013

  A TRC Commemoration Feast is held in Port Alberni in March. 400+ people witnessed the return of artworks to Survivors. Some Survivors choose to take their paintings home and care for them privately. Other Survivors receive their artworks back and express their hopes to share their paintings for education. Also, the A.I.R.S. Survivors and UVIC faculty/students are invited to present their work at the TRC National Event in Vancouver. Thousands of people see the art and learn the Survivors’ truths.

  

• 2013-2019

  Three major exhibitions of the paintings are mounted in British Columbia (To Reunite, To Honour, To Witness (Victoria 2013); We Are All One (Port Alberni 2015); and There is Truth Here: Creativity and Resilience in Children’s Art from Indian Residential and Day Schools (Victoria and Vancouver 2017-2019)). Over 75,000 people viewed the paintings on display in these exhibitions.

  

  

  

• 2015

  The story of the A.I.R.S. Survivors and the return of their paintings is included in Volume 6 of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

  

• 2015-2016

  A.I.R.S. Survivors receive the Alberni Valley Heritage Commission Award, and the British Columbia Museums Award of Merit for their contributions to history and reconciliation in British Columbia.

  

• 2017

  A permanent digital exhibition of the paintings from A.I.R.S. is installed in Canada Hall at the Canadian Museum of History featuring videos of A.I.R.S. Survivors speaking about the art.

  

• 2023

  A.I.R.S. Survivors create the Alberni Residential School Survivors Art and Education Society. Through the non-profit society they will continue their work to support education about residential schools through the story of the A.I.R.S. youth artists.