National Indigenous History Month (NIHM) is a time to celebrate First Nations, Inuit and Métis language, culture and history. Throughout June, we are commemorating NIHM through various initiatives to celebrate Indigenous heritage and foster greater understanding within the organization and the broader community. 

This year, Metrolinx will include a wrapped GO bus as part of our NIHM celebration.

For this bus wrap design, launched during NIHM and on display for the next year, we worked with Shayde Sandy, a multidisciplinary artist who specializes in oil portraits. 

“My art is mainly about my life and my experience of life on reserve,” said Sandy, a Haudenosaunee Woman from Six Nations Reserve. 

“It stemmed from going to school and…really missing my home and my community while I was at Queen’s,” said Sandy. Living three hours away from the reserve during the Covid-19 pandemic, she found herself focusing on her Indigenous identity for the first time as an artist. 

Nurturing creativity

“I've always been pretty artistic ever since I can remember,” said Sandy. “I've been drawing, painting, crafting, and even dancing since I was two years old.” Her family has always encouraged her to pursue a creative career — Sandy's father is a sculptor, and her grandmother would give her art supplies, take her to events, and submit her artwork to contests. 

At Queen’s University, where she studied visual art and film, Sandy learned new techniques and began to develop her practice as an artist. “There, I started to learn about oil painting, and it’s my favourite medium now,” said Sandy. “Queen’s also helped me find my style and themes and palette, and my love for portraiture.”

Today, Sandy is a working artist specializing in portrait commissions; many of her recent paintings feature members of her reserve. “A lot of my artworks so far are about my community and our values as a whole,” says Sandy. “It's very much about family and community and connection.”

As an artist who often references Haudenosaunee traditions and culture in her paintings, Sandy wants her work to be respectful while also authentic and truthful to her perspective. “It’s mainly about my life and my experience. And I'm native, so that's what's in my art,” said Sandy

“There's a lot of harmful stereotypes or outdated understandings of my people, and I want to provide a more realistic representation of who we actually are,” said Sandy. “Our history doesn't have to define us."

Looking forward, she is also hoping to — in her artwork and through social media — explore new topics and subjects as her career evolves. “I am grateful to be recognized as a native artist, but I also want to expand my horizons and explore themes outside of my identity too,” said Sandy.  

Making connections

Sandy's bus wrap design will be officially unveiled during National Indigenous History Month and will remain in circulation across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area for one year. 

It features three members of her immediate family. “This is a portrait of my grandpa, my brother, and my cousin,” says Sandy. “The design on the background is woodland art style, and there are these lines that are surrounding the portrait.” 

“The lines surrounding the people are to show how interconnected we are,” says Sandy. “Family and community are so important to us.” 

The bus wrap design is based on an oil painting Sandy created in 2022 that is part of an ongoing portrait series titled Intergenerational Love that highlights all the love in her community.

“I chose the title Intergenerational Love because I wanted to reframe the word ‘intergenerational’ for my people and society in general and remove the stigma from the word and pair it with something nicer,” says Sandy.