“Who We Are”

2023

Acrylic, gold leaf, pouring medium, beadwork through stretched canvas.

2 1/2 x 3 ft

“Woman - La Faam”

2022

Acrylic, dispersion pigment, pouring medium, gold leaf and beadwork through stretched canvas.

12” x 36”

“aansaamb- Together”

2022

Acrylic, pouring medium, gold leaf, beadwork through stretched canvas.

“Daashpaymoon - Faith”

2022

Acrylic, pouring medium, gold leaf, beadwork through stretched canvas

“Niiya Ikoo - Myself”

2021

Acrylic, pouring medium, beadwork through stretched canvas

The works speak to the collective identity of Métis women as this identity was recorded in history. Following the resistance or “Rebellion” in the West, Métis families dispersed across Canada and the Northern States, and many assimilated to succeed and survive in Canadian society. My family is an example of this. My Gran’s Grandmother fled Red River and married an English man in Ontario. She abandoned her French Michif identity and language(s) and took on a new identity (that didn’t match her looks at all). As a result, my grandmother and mother grew up without the transfer of Metis beadwork, language, protocols or an understanding of the role of Metis women in their families and community generally. Further, I had to learn about myself in a western institution. For the most part, Métis men continued to practice some of their traditions, such as hunting etc., as they were practices that were common amongst other Canadian men. They were also heavily involved with politics and the trading systems, so their stories and voices have been captured in our literature and political documents throughout time. Unlike the men, we do not see the same documentation of Métis women voices and stories. Métis Women have been documented almost as a generic unified or collective identity. I have heard some people say that the identity of Métis women was worn on the skin of their men – meaning that the men wore the beaded clothing that their wives made for them – and the documented female Métis experience ends here. The loss of individual female Métis voices has greatly impacted my own journey of reclaiming my culture and identity. Along the way, I have offended traditional protocols trying to learn who I am, what my role is, and where I come from. All I knew about myself when I uncovered my hidden identity was what had been physically left behind from the Métis women before me, and these beaded things did not provide instructions on how to carry myself or even how to bead for that matter. The first painting – (the one with traditional beadwork) This work speaks to this Métis collective identity documented on the skin of the Metis men. You might be able to see a cowbird in the middle/left of the painting. I chose a cowbird because they follow the bison herds, as the Western Métis did. The male cowbird is situated in front of the wagon wheel of a Red River cart to represent Métis Men as they were documented and portrayed throughout history. Around the base of the cowbird, there are five women beading the cowbird, a sort of nod to the way Métis women were portrayed as the decorators of the men. I have chosen to include plants that were important to Métis women traditionally, as well as prairie smoke flowers, which represent resilience and new growth. This will be a theme that ties into the next painting as well.

The second painting – (the one with abstract beadwork) This painting is about the Métis experience as a woman today, and comments on how our identity as it has been recorded and depicted historically has left me and other young Métis women in contemporary society feeling disconnected from our roles, traditions, and identity in general. The cowbird in that painting is not beaded, as it represents Métis Women generally, but also the disconnection from our identity and the end of the traditional Indigenous knowledge transfer from mother to daughter, etc. The five women are now scattered about the painting, distanced from the female cowbird. Each of these women are doing a traditional activity, such as harvesting (bottom left), fiddling (left), jigging (top left x2), and beading (top right corner), all cultural activities that I was born and raised without. This speaks to the fact that this knowledge still exists, but it is largely inaccessible for many Métis women. We are further distanced from this knowledge because we have a lack of traditional protocols. The abstract beadwork throughout the painting speaks to this disconnect and the ongoing struggle to piece ourselves together. I have chosen to include plants with healing properties for this reason. Rather than a prairie smoke flower to represent resilience, I have included a fireweed flower. Fireweed is the Ontario equivalent of the prairie smoke. It too represents resilience and new growth, but in the place that has now become my family’s home. Finally, you may see that I have painted the University of Ottawa over the head of the female cowbird. Again, this speaks to the fact that I had to attend a western institution to learn about who I was