Short-listed for the 2012 Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize

Mildred Valley Thornton (1890¬1967) (HON. CPA, FRSA) was born in Ontario. Portraits of the First Nations peoples of Western Canada became the genius loci of her oeuvre. During the Depression, her family moved to Vancouver. She became an advocate for First Nations peoples and made important historical contributions to British Columbian art and culture. Thornton was also a noted journalist, Vancouver Sun art critic(1944¬1959), book reviewer and published poet.

Before she died, Thornton unsuccessfully tried to interest Canadian institutions in purchasing her collection of approximately 300 portraits of First Nations peoples of Canada. Identified in her work are ancestors from twenty-four Western First Nations, including, Haida, Kwakwaka'wakw, Squamish, Stó:lo, on the plains these include the Cree, Kainai, Piikani, Saulteaux, Sitsika and Tsuu T'ina. When she realized no government agency or gallery was going to purchase her work, she was so anguished that she wrote a codicil to her will. The codicil was improperly witnessed; the work remained intact. Her work is in the Royal B.C. Museum and Archives, the Glenbow Museum, the Heiltsuk Nation, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the National Gallery of Canada, the Simon Fraser University Gallery, the Squamish Nation and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Introduction by Sherrill Grace.

Sheryl Salloum was born and raised in British Columbia. She has lived and worked in various regions of the province. Sheryl graduated from Simon Fraser University with an English Major and Early Childhood Minor. A freelance writer for over twenty years, she has published articles in numerous Canadian magazines and newspapers. Her areas of interest include Canadian art, culture, and history and children’s issues. In 1995, she published Underlying Vibrations: The Photography and Life of John Vanderpant (Horsdal & Schubart). That book was a finalist for the Hubert Evans Non-fiction BC Book Prize. In 1987, Sheryl published Malcolm Lowry: Vancouver Days (Harbour Publishing). She and her husband have one daughter. They live in Vancouver.

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