Skip to content Skip to main navigation

Every Child is Sacred


Every Child is Sacred

Que Rock; Manitou Nemeen (Quentin Commanda)
With assistance of son, Cassius

Nomadic muralist and musician Que Rock (Quentin Commanda) created this mural for the Tree Protection Zone (TPZ) project, addressing the legacy of residential schools and their continuing impacts on Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island. Titled Every Child is Sacred, it honours the unnamed Indigenous children who never came home. Rock explains, “I wanted to show kids who are very excited to go to school, but were going to residential school, and were murdered and went missing in those schools. The mural shows the children leaving their home and the woodlands, waiting in line to go to school, but they actually enter the Spirit world.” Rock’s aerosol version of Woodlands-style painting roots the work in an Anishinaabe worldview, and a vibrant orange palette identifies it with the Every Child Matters movement in support of residential school survivors seeking justice today. 

About the Artist
Que Rock; Manitou Nemeen (Quentin Commanda) is a Nipissing First Nation-born artist. Through traditional Ojibway and Odawa ways, teachings, approaches, and ceremonies in visual healing art forms, he learned painting, dancing, leatherwork, and storytelling techniques. As a traditional Anishnawbe first nations graffiti artist, Que interprets daily interactions, the city, and his culture, while depiction of nature and animals bring meaning and connection to life.  He says, “working on murals allows [him] to engage in the community, bring people together and inspire others”.


Every Child is Sacred is part of Tree Protection Zone, a transformative Indigenous-led public art exhibition at Hart House Circle. See works by other Tree Protection Zone artists: Shuvinai Ashoona, Susan Blight, Carrie Hill, Christi Belcourt (Onaman Collective), Isaac Murdoch (Onaman Collective), and Taqralik Partridge in collaboration with Nils Ailo Utsi.