At one London high school, diversity inspires massive student-led mural

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A massive mural generated from ideas of Sir Wilfrid Laurier secondary school students about diversity is nearing completion.

“The mural is essentially a visual representation of the values of Laurier, particularly in diversity and inclusion,” said student Hanjia Zhang, 17, who worked on the project with Indigenous mural artist Mike Cywink.

“One of the big ideas is wanting it to be student-driven because students represent such a big part of our diversity here at Laurier.”

Cywink, a former Manitoulin Island resident whose other job is supporting Indigenous high school students throughout the Thames Valley District school board, said work on the mural with a core group of students began in February and he hopes it will be completed by the end of the week.

“The whole idea comes from the students, even in terms of the colours. I am just guiding the ship,” he said. “I went in and did two workshops to generate ideas, show them we can get their ideas out and show them visually,”

He said the students at the south London school talked and sketched out what they wanted to see in the mural “in terms of community, respect and love.”

“We came up with a bunch of words and animals that represented our school,” said Diya Patel, 17, who also worked on the project. “We split up and everybody created their own piece of the mural. We put those ideas together. (Cywink) is an Indigenous artist, so our mural is very colourful and has that Indigenous art style going on.”

The mural is about 75 per cent completed, Cywink said.

“For two weeks we have been painting this mural and it’s been really great,” said Laurier student Grace Churney, 14.

Cywink said mural painting “started as a side gig.” To date he has done five murals at high schools across London.

The mural was partially funded by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Additional funding came from an anonymous private donation and school funds.

hrivers@postmedia.com