Taapittahsohkoto (Honour with a Song in Public)
2019
Installation and performance

My Blackfoot identity motivates my work. I am self-taught in various mediums including drawing, painting, new media, photography, video, performance art, installation, and I have more recently acquired traditional practices like sewing and beading. The methodology behind my work involves viewing contemporary art practices through a Blackfoot perspective. Art is an integral part of my life because it is inseparable from my identity. To be a Blackfoot woman pursuing art is to reconstruct my personal distinction of perceiving art through an Indigenous lens. This is echoed through my work by activating entities like land, body, and spirit. I incorporate a great deal of my Blackfoot spirituality into my practices that are attached to my beliefs connecting the Seven Native Paradigms, language, and the metaphysical as a creative thinker of Blackfoot cosmology and theory. The frameworks of my philosophies are heavily influenced by the history of Blackfoot people, storytelling, ancestral lineage, ceremony, and the language of animals, land, and using my spirit as a guide in what to do, how to do it, and how to tell my story. I trust my instincts to guide my practice as I use my intuition to articulate my ideas. My work would not be possible without the wonderful support of my family, my peers, friends, my partner, colleagues, and, most importantly, the art community. I celebrate Blackfoot culture and where I come from proudly through my personal artistic style. With art, I am able to tell the stories of my predecessors, and continue to learn, educate others, and demonstrate my knowledge through my practices by giving it a voice.

Kindness is Timeless
2019
Multimedia

The piece Kindness is Timeless was inspired by the artwork Aeroplane by the Inuit artist Pudlo Pudlat. Pudlat spent most of his life living a traditional semi-nomadic way until settling in the hamlet of Cape Dorset. He experienced and catalogued a rapidly changing lifestyle as western technology altered the landscape and way of life. With the inspiration of Pudlat, I try to express this through the images and materials used.

When creating my artwork, I wanted it to reflect the same sudden transition of lifestyle that Pudlat’s artwork, Aeroplane, evoked but viewed with a touch of my own ways of knowing. I played with the objective perspective that time-lapses expose and segmented them into 4 individual time periods withing the history of turtle island. In my own way, this is a statement to the future, when mouths will not be there to speak it; if dug up, what will archeologists pull from the interpretation of this time period? What do you as the viewer think of this time period?

In my Blackfoot culture, the word Niitsitapi refers to a person who is original, true to themselves and others and is genuinely kind in their humanly experience. This is a word that crosses barriers, independent of cultural background. Being Niitsitapi is an individual experience measured by your effort to become true keepers of your own land, women, children, friends and future generations. The fourth and final time lapse is meant to encompass this unborn future that is built by people who take time out of their day to feel something sacred, those who feel a connection to the land and people, those who are simply kind in their everyday interactions and are defined by what they do. Niitsitapi: the architects of a better future.

History of the Big Dipper
2019
Chalkboard and audio

History of the Big Dipper is based on a Blackfoot creation story called “The Seven Stars.” It is a story of pain, death, and survival with seven brothers and two sisters. My inspiration came from the artwork Dreaming by Inuit artist, Kookeeyout. Kookeeyout’s artwork is based on her interpretations of creation stories, as well as it is inspired from her traditional Inuit way of life. I chose “The Seven Stars” because it is a creation story from my culture. This story is orally passed down through generations, giving it multiple interpretations within Blackfoot culture. I love cosmology, so that’s why I gravitated towards this story of how the Big Dipper and North Star were created.

Honouring the Lost Foundations of Life
2019
SS rod and sheet metal

Honouring the Lost Foundations of Life is a sculpture that spans six feet in height and eleven and a half feed in length, which is the actual size of a buffalo. It is made up of half inch SS 40 rod and sheet metal. It was created in response to Caribou Hunt by Elisapee Ishulutaq. In her artwork, she expressed her passion for life as most Native cultures do, and she also invoked an understanding that animals provided and played a large role in Indigenous survival. Wayne’s response to the artwork was to honour the most important animal in Blackfoot culture: Inni – the buffalo. It also depicts how much Indigenous people have moved on, as well as how much they still rely on what is left of the foundations of life.

Lineage of a Grandmother’s Affection
2019
Acrylic on canvas and tracing paper

Lineage of a Grandmother’s Affection was created using acrylic on canvas. The inspiration behind the work was the whale tooth ivory sculpture created by Piniare Nakinge. From his work, Kiana felt a sense of connectedness with spirits so she wanted to implement her spirit animal in some way. The number four is a sacred number across many tribes, hence the four canvases. Four represents a balanced cycle, which is also why the number four cycles through the sky. The women sleeping shows how her family’s spirit feels at ease within the bears since they are their protectors. The ribbon connects the four figures through their hearts and represents their love for one another that carries on from generation to generation. The hearts in the figures’ wombs are symbolic of them carrying the next daughter and embodies the artist’s connection to her grandmothers even though she has not met them.