In late 2015, I found my voice through a new style of painting. The process has become one of the most important elements of my work, reflecting on the identity struggles that I face as a Métis youth. For this work I decided to document my process through video as a way of highlighting the importance of my artistic process, a part of my work that very few people see. The film is my attempt to give my process equal significance to my finished paintings.

Each scene in the film shows each step of my process, and each step reflects a certain aspect of our history as a people within Canada. The mixing of pigments in the beginning of the film reflects on the ethnogenesis and emergence of the Métis people. The blurred focus represents our people losing touch of and rejecting our culture. The peeling of liquid frisket represents the stripping of Métis culture that took place in residential and day schools which aimed to “kill the Indian in the child”. The white paint covering the mixed colours below references the assimilation process which halted the transfer of Indigenous knowledge and pushed us to blend into the dominant culture. The beading in the end of the film represents the reclaiming of our culture after many years of silence and oppressions of our people. The words that I speak at the end of the film are in Michif-French, one dialect of the Métis peoples traditional language. I went to a group of knowledge keepers in our community to learn the phrase, “Chrpren ma keultseur, erprend ma voyoi, erprend kikchu” which means “we are reclaiming our culture, reclaiming our voice, reclaiming our identity”. The words are played over the scene of me beading, further reinforcing the strength and resilience of our people.

The noose: weaves through the painting from top right to bottom middle. Symbolizes Riel’s hanging, and the oppressive nature of pan-Indigenous approaches to inclusion.

The plantain: the plant in the top left corner is also called white-mans footprint. What I have been told is that it’s seeds were brought over on the clothing of settlers. It thrives in foreign environments. It also has medicinal properties. In this work, plantain represents the jury. With a similar history, this system can be changed to reconcile wrongs. 
The six buds sprouting up and intertwined with the 6 figures together represent the 12 jurors. 

The prairie smoke wild-flower: this whispy flower represents the Métis-the first flower to sprout after a prairie fire. After over one-hundred years of silence to avoid discrimination and persecution, there has been a revival of our Métis culture. Like the prairie smoke, we are resilient. 
These flowers are weaved through the noose, representing the continuation of oppression, and suggest that our distinctiveness should be acknowledged. 

The four sacred medicines: in the bottom right corner, these plants together represent possibilities of reconciliation through changes to the jury selection process. 

During my summer employment, I became interested in Métis-specific participation in the jury selection process. This interest was born out of my failed attempts to put together public presentations on this topic. There was virtually no information out there on Métis and the jury selection process.
This past semester, I investigated this issue further in my directed research course called “Jury Selection and Representation”. Throughout this course I explored the flaws of our current jury selection process, and thought of ways it could be improved. While Indigenous people’s continue to be over-criminalized and over-represented in our prison system, they have been largely under-represented on juries... but the exact statistics remain unknown. My ultimate question came to be, “how can we assume that juries are performing their function as the conscience of the community, or that they achieve a standard of representativeness if we don’t value knowing the racial identity/ethnic background of those participating in the process, or care if an entire group is not engaged?”

I couldn’t help but reflect on the negative impact that Louis Riel’s trial, prosecution and death had on our people. In a place that was dominantly Métis, his jury consisted of all white protestants, a community other than his own. An oppressive death leading to further and continuous oppression within this system. 

2 1/2 x 3 ft

"No offence, but you don't even look Métis"... A quote I hear so often by so many people. Métis identity is not racial, and it is not based in blood quantum or mixedness. The Métis(or “Michif”) nation emerged at a specific time in history in geographic areas outside of the control of the Canadian state. We as Métis embrace our historical and current ties to the Métis homeland, our shared culture and nationhood. Many people call us the invisible people, we blend into society, you cannot tell a Métis person by their appearance. 

I imagine this series of photographs to resemble old portraits of our ancestors. These are large format black and white film photographs. I shot them with a large format film camera, developed them in the dark room, scanned and inverted them, and painted all of the colour you see on photoshop. 

“Disconnected” depicts an Elder passing teachings to a youth; each of the teachings is represented by its respective animal. However, the “disconnected” youth, lost in the world of his laptop, does not realize what is going on. It speaks about a gap in the transfer of Indigenous knowledge, and the realities Indigenous peoples face after years of colonization.

This was my first woodland style painting. I entered it into the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) Student Achievement art competition and won an award. The theme of the year’s prose, poetry, visual arts, and audio/visual animation competition was, “The right to speak, the responsibility to listen”. 

"Disconnected" can also be found on page 4 of David Bouchard's book, "Dreamcatcher and The Seven Deceivers".

I chose to do a mixed media piece of Poundmaker, therefore, what he stood for… a peacemaker. He exemplified the teaching of courage by standing up for what he believed was right despite the overwhelming government forces to create submissiveness.

The photo that I used of Poundmaker in the piece was very gallant, which even further illustrates his character and shows him as a proud, formidable being. I wanted to show this strength in my art. There were many aspects of life that had been lost. Aboriginal culture was ridiculed and shamed for many years. My family is just starting to learn about our rich, Metis heritage, which had been hidden away by our ancestors who were trying to fit into a European society.
There are still many issues and rights that we have to defend due to misunderstandings. I sometimes feel it in school and through our Metis council.

Recreating Poundmaker’s image helps up to remember and learn from our past, so that everyone will be encouraged to stand up for what is right and so others will respectfully listen. Then we will be heeding the message of our peacemaker…to walk in the path, instead of sitting beside it.

My visual interpretation of the turtle island creation story.

"Creation story" was featured as the month of July in the 2015 Donna Conna Calendar. 

The piece titled, “Choose”, speaks about the scrip system and the government’s inability to understand or acknowledge our identity. We do not fit into a neat little box. All of our stories are different and it makes us hard to define. This has created many obstacles for us, and we have often been delegitimized for the abstract space we appear to float around in.