How art helps embrace Indigenous roots

Kate Bandura, 
Lookout Contributor 

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As Canada prepares to observe National Truth and Reconciliation Day this September, we reflect on the intertwining of Indigenous heritage and military service through the story of one remarkable family.

 

The Byrnell family’s military ties run deep. Wes Byrnell, a decorated veteran who served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 33.5 years, left a lasting impact on the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the field of athletic therapy. His wife Doreen Laurent served in the Women’s Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), known as the “WAFs” (Women in the Air Force) and Wes’s daughter Carrie Byrnell Kohan joined the Victoria Air Cadets 89^th Squadron from ages 13 to 16.

 

However, beneath this military life lay a hidden Indigenous heritage.

 

Carrie’s mother, a Métis woman and former member of the Women’s Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), known as the ‘WAFs’, represents a powerful intersection of these two worlds.

 

“Our heritage goes back to King Louis XIV in France,” Carrie explains, tracing her genealogy to 1671 when her ancestor Marie-Antoinette Lefèbvre (Limousin) sailed by herself from Bordeau France to Quebec, as an 18-year-old Filles du Roi. The family tree is rich with entries of French-Indigenous marriages, though many Indigenous names were simply recorded as ‘Jean Francois married Indian’, without any further identification of who the native woman was or where she came from.

 

The impact of residential schools looms large in this family’s history. Carrie’s mother Doreen was taken away from her family and was placed in a residential school at just three years old. Once released, Doreen never spoke of her Native background again.

 

“The native culture was beaten out of them, so my mom pretended to be non-native for the rest of her life once she was freed,” Carrie explains. “But I believe the military provided a sense of safety and community for my mother after her difficult childhood in residential schools.” It was while working in a military hospital that her parents met, leading to a ‘military wedding’ that symbolically united Indigenous culture with military life.

 

It wasn’t until her mother’s death that Kohan discovered her own Indigenous background at age 40, a revelation that explained her lifelong affinity for Native culture and art.

 

Despite this concealed heritage, Indigenous influences were present throughout Carrie’s life. Growing up on military bases, she found herself drawn to Native communities, often being the only ‘Caucasian-looking’ girl who played baseball on the local reservation.

 

“I had an affinity for native artwork long before I understood why,” Carrie adds. “It was like an inner calling that I couldn’t explain.”

 

This connection to Indigenous art forms a significant part of Kohan’s identity and family history. Her father was a talented cartoonist in the military, a skill that was passed down to Carrie’s brother Tom Byrnell as well. Tom was a cartoonist for Reader’s Digest and Victoria’s Monday Magazine back in the 1980s. This artistic inclination, Carrie believes, was influenced by their Indigenous heritage.

 

“We were all artists in our family,” she says. “And now I understand that our artwork was deeply influenced by our Native culture, even when we weren’t aware of it.”

 

This artistic inclination has been passed down to the next generation. Carrie’s eldest daughter, Nakita Kohan, has embraced their Indigenous heritage through music. Nakita has performed at the Truth and Reconciliation National Event, the Provincial Louis Riel Day celebrations, and she’s hosted three Indigenous Day events in Alberta so far, using her voice to keep cultural traditions alive. Carrie’s youngest daughter Amelia, has also used her talents to focus on fundraising for the homeless with the Kohan Family’s initiatives.

 

Carrie and Nakita even co-wrote a song together called The Prayer Song when Nakita was only 12 years old. Blending their shared artistic talents with their Indigenous heritage. This song, which Nakita performs, has become a powerful expression of their cultural identity and has played on 77 radio stations across Canada. 

 

Today, Carrie sees her work as a counsellor and trauma therapist (specializing in helping military personnel with PTSD) as another form of artistic expression. She incorporates Indigenous healing practices and visualisation techniques, viewing this as a continuation of her family’s tradition of service. 

 

“Art, whether it’s visual, musical, or therapeutic, is a powerful tool for healing and connection,” Carrie Kohan explains. “It’s a way to honor our Indigenous heritage while serving our community – much like my father did in the military with his Sports Medicine Clinics. Dad volunteered all his life to help others heal and play strong.”

 

Carrying on her parents’ legacy of service, Carrie became a national child advocate, working to write and amend 14 laws in Canada to protect children from harm, including bringing Amber Alert and the National Sex Offender Registries into Canada. 

 

“I spent 17 years as a volunteer child advocate and Federal Government Witness.” Carrie adds, “I was the first voice in Canada to speak up in 1998 to protect children, but that came at a huge cost for me personally. There were no agencies or systems in place to report child abuse images back then, so people started sending me the images they found online from across the country. Consequently, I was traumatized after years of hearing some of the most horrific stories and I ended up with PTSD. I healed myself through my spiritual traditional practices, and my years of training in NLP while being a business partner with motivational speaker Tony Robbins.” 

 

Today, Carrie works as a therapist, specializing in helping military personnel with PTSD, drawing on her own experiences and Indigenous healing practices. She sees this work as a continuation of her family’s tradition of service and a way to bridge cultural divides.