mohawk institute
PERMANENT EXHIBIT
Mohawk Institute Former Residential School Museum: A Site of National Conscience
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
12,000 sq.ft.
WeatherstonBruer Associates served as the exhibition designers for the transformation of the Mohawk Institute, one of Canada’s oldest and longest-running residential schools, into a permanent historic site and museum dedicated to truth-telling, learning, and healing. Working under the leadership of Indigenous advisors Tim Johnson and Rick Hill, and in collaboration with Lord Cultural Resources, WBa developed a design that respects the building as an artifact while centering the story on the voices and experiences of Survivors.
Survivor consultation shaped every stage of the project. Workshops, walkthroughs, and meetings, including sessions at the Survivors Secretariat annual gathering, ensured factual accuracy, cultural sensitivity, and emotional resonance.
The building itself is an artifact, holding the memories and stories of those who spent time there. Our approach was to apply the exhibits with a light touch, allowing the space itself to express these memories. Graphic panels “float” off the walls, lighting reveals evidence of the past, and subtle interventions, such as silhouetted scrims and stencilled quotes, evoke the presence of the children who lived, studied and worked there. To ensure that this continues to be an active site of conscience, flexibility was built into the system through standardized panel sizes and mounting methods, allowing new stories and content to be added over time. Listening stations and immersive media deepen engagement with Survivor testimony; multimedia development was led by our partners at Thru The RedDoor and NGX.
The visitor journey follows the path that children took when they arrived at the school, moving through the building in a way that mirrors their experience. The exhibition concludes in a bright, welcoming space focused on resilience, community strength, and the ongoing preservation of Indigenous languages.
The resulting exhibition weaves together testimony, artifacts, and the physical fabric of the building to communicate both the daily realities of the Mohawk Institute and the enduring impacts of the residential school system.
Project Direction: Tim Johnson
Lead Curator: Rick Hill
Exhibit Design: WeatherstonBruer
Interpretive Planning / Writing: Lord Cultural
Fabrication: Kubik Maltbie
Graphic Design: David Beyer & Meredith Sadler
Photography: Alex Heidbuechel