A family home ruined by fire, but look deeper into the narrative, over 200 years ago, before this house was even a pencil mark on an architect's page. In the 1800's, the Canadian Government forcibly removed Indigenous families from their traditional lands and onto boats to take them to reserves across the inlet. In 2023 at the Museum of Vancouver, I saw black & white photographs of Indigenous families standing on the shoreline. How terrified they must have felt. The unfathomable uncertainty of what would happen next. The archive photographs compelled me to create this painting, to bear witness. I had taken the photos of the house several years before that day, and suddenly it came rushing back to me. At first, we see the loss of a beautiful house, but we must acknowledge what lies beneath. Grievously present to this day, generational trauma is rooted as deeply as the oldest trees lining the streets of Shaughnessy. We must not forget that Vancouver was established on the traditional lands of the Indigenous people without their consent. Vancouver is the unceded traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations.