TakingITGlobal

51 # R I S I N G Y O U T H C O M M U N I T Y I M P A C T V O L . 2 G rowing up as a native woman raised in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia — a community that has rarely acknowledged Indigenous cultures — Mallory Hookey wanted to open the door to the beauty of Indigeneity within her community. She was deeply impacted and moved by the social change she was seeing around her after the most recent wave of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Mallory worked with her peer group, the POSSE Project, to put together an art project that would bring Indigenous culture to the forefront of her community's consciousness. 17 youth in the communities of Windsor, Sackville, and Sipekne'katik painted nearly 50 rocks with pictures on the front and facts Rock Art for Change about Indigneous history and culture on the back. They worked together during the summer months to distribute the rocks in different places around their communities as a way to educate people about multiple indigenous cultures, such as Mi'kmaq, Inuit, and Métis. She also encouraged the community to share their rock art and the lessons they learned on social media to further the reach and awareness of Indigenous cultures and history. "We invited all community members to hunt for, find the rocks, and share the lessons on them," explained Malllory. As Mallory says, "The biggest success was the knowledge people gained both while creating the rocks and those who found them." The biggest success was the knowledge people gained... Mallory Hookey A special thank you to POSSE Project for sharing the #RisingYouth grant opportunity with Mallory to make this project possible.

• Cover