My work as an artist explores themes of identity, memory, family, belonging, distance, absence, and relation through the lens of my relationship to my mother and her relationship to her mothers.

By processing the multitude of material creations and inherited items collected by both myself and my ancestors, I attempt to make sense of my place within Indigenous community. By examining my personal and familial ties to the act of “collecting” and the preservation of “collections,” I investigate the legacy of settler colonialism that contributed to shaping my family. My own Indigeneity is shaped by my relationship to my mother and father and their relationships to their mothers and fathers. Relationships marked by both absence and presence, belonging and abandonment.

I have a great quantity of art supplies - specifically fabric and notions - both that I have gathered and that have passed into my collection from my mother and grandmothers. These are the items that hold the most resonant stories and memories from their lives and mine. As a way of understanding this legacy, I have focused my research on Indigenous relationships with material creations, juxtaposed against the collecting practices of settler colonial institutions. I am curious about the different drivers of this similar act on both individual and institutional sides and how these physical material relationships can become a stand-in for Indigenous community when those ancestral bonds are broken.

By utilizing a wide range of materials - both collected and inherited - I aim to confront the deep sentimental attachment I feel to the stories of my family embodied in these items. I use my materials in slow, methodical, and repetitive processes like quilting, beading, and weaving which force me to be present and mindful of the memories and emotions that are recalled by these inherited items. I strive to process painful family histories and, with gentleness, navigate through them. My goal is to reclaim my Indigeneity through the artistic process and to continue the journey of generational healing initiated by my mother. The process is often more important for me than the finished product, there is a sense of navigating relationships, piecing together fragments of memories, allowing the materials to dictate their own proximities. I am hopeful that this journey resonates with others who are processing the legacies of settler-colonialism that have impacted their sense of belonging.

I also hope to confront the collection practices of institutions that hold our Indigenous material relatives and to question their role in the ongoing project of settler colonialism. I hope that my artistic work helps these stolen and captive relatives to be viewed in the context of their importance in the lives of those that created and inherited them by highlighting the memories and stories they hold.