A grade 9 student at Brother Rice in St. John’s has won the opportunity to represent all of Atlantic Canada in a national competition focused on Truth and Reconciliation.

Emma Vickers’ art work, “The Wolf’s Child” features a wolf with a child inside and has been chosen as part of the National Truth and Reconciliation “Imagine a Canada” program.

Her artwork will be featured in a pamphlet and she will be able to attend a leadership conference in Winnipeg to connect with respected Indigenous elders and groups from across the country.

Vickers was inspired to create the image after being encouraged by her social studies teacher, Heather Moffatt.

“I decided to do it because I thought it would be cool, and I did not really expect myself to be representing Atlantic Canada right now,” Vickers says incredulously.

Moffatt says she couldn’t be more proud.

“From a teacher’s perspective, seeing Emma do this fills me with so much pride,” says Moffatt. “Emma is so artistic and has big, big ideas, and so for her to actually put them on paper and for someone else to see them, it gives me so much hope about the future.”