In our pilot season, we welcomed 12 artists in the Fall/Winter and Spring of 2024/2025.
2025 ARTISTS
Image by Zoya Lynch
Skye Paul, Dene
Beadwork - Website
Skye Paul is a Dene artist from Toronto whose beadwork and illustration blend ancestral techniques with pop culture influences. Her practice draws from family teachings and community knowledge, exploring identity, tradition, and urban Indigeneity. Through digital, fashion, and community platforms, she shares her work in accessible and meaningful ways.
Image by Zoya Lynch
Daystar Belcourt, Cree Métis
Painting and Tattooing - Instagram
Daystar is a Cree Métis artist and advocate from Saddle Lake and Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta. Their multidisciplinary work, spanning oil painting, ink, and tattoo - visually expresses Nehiyawewin (Cree language) and is deeply rooted in ancestral teachings, land, and spirit. Through a blend of realism and abstraction, Daystar explores themes of Indigenous identity, healing, and resistance. Alongside their art practice, they are a harm reduction educator, psychedelic therapist, and decolonial consultant dedicated to community care and cultural reclamation.
Bella White, L’nu
Fish Skin Tanning and Beadwork
Isabella White is a mixed L’nu multidisciplinary artist from Three Rivers, Ktaqmkuk, with deep roots in Nujio’qonik. Her practice is grounded in intergenerational care and includes bark-tanning fish leather, sewing, beading, and painting as acts of expression, connection, and ceremony. Now based in Elmastukwek, Isabella carries forward family teachings and community mentorship with gratitude and reciprocity.
Images by Zoya Lynch
Images by Zoya Lynch
Smokii Sumac, Ktunaxa
Poet and Painter - Instagram
Smokii Sumac (they/he) is a Ktunaxa two-spirit and transmasculine poet, emerging playwright, and storyteller. Their debut book, you are enough: love poems for the end of the world, won the Indigenous Voices Award for English Poetry and explores themes of love, survival, and sovereignty. Smokii centres Indigenous knowledge in his creative work, from his spoken word album (releasing in 2025) to The ʔasqanaki Podcast and his first play, Seven and One Heart. He lives joyfully on his home territories of ʔamakʔis Ktunaxa with his husband, cats, chickens, and their beloved rez dog, Kootenay Lou.
Images by Zoya Lynch
Zaynab Mohammed, Palestinian
Poet and Writer - Website
Zaynab is a performance poet and multidisciplinary artist of Lebanese, Iraqi, and Palestinian descent, based in Nelson, BC. Their work explores identity, diaspora, and belonging through poetry, visual art, and community engagement. Known for their interactive “poembooth” and live events, Zaynab continues to create across disciplines, with current projects including a spoken word series and memoir.
Ariel Hill, Mohawk and Anishinaabe
Sculpture - Website
Ariel Kesike Hill is an Indigenous artist from Six Nations of the Grand River and Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, now based in Revelstoke, BC. Her glass sculptures and mixed media works reflect a deep reverence for the intricate beauty of the natural world—both vast and microscopic—inviting connection between viewer and landscape. A BFA graduate in Glass from Alberta University of the Arts and current MFA candidate at Emily Carr (Class of 2026), Ariel’s work has been exhibited in some of Canada’s most prestigious galleries.
Image by Zoya Lynch
Amber Sandy, Chippewa
Multidisciplinary Artist and Hide Tanner - Instagram
Amber Sandy is an artist and hide tanner from Neyaashiinigmiing, the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, whose work blends traditional knowledge with environmental science. Specializing in leather, beadwork, tufting, and fur, she transforms moose, deer, and fish skins into handcrafted pieces rooted in cultural practice. Amber is passionate about expanding access to land-based education and traditional skills for Indigenous communities.
Images by Zoya Lynch
Melissa Hoffart, Ojibwe
Beadwork and Quillwork
Melissa is an Anishinaabekwe from Batchewana First Nation (mukwa clan) with mixed European ancestry, currently living as a guest on Sḵwx̱wú7mesh territory. A passionate community-builder, land-based learner, and Program Lead with Indigenous Women Outdoors, she has led snowshoeing and trail running programs while organizing events rooted in culture and connection. Melissa finds joy on the trails, in the garden, and through language revitalization and beadwork—always eager to build lasting relationships with other Indigenous women.
2024 ARTISTS
Image by Kali Spitzer
Catherine Blackburn, Dënesųłinë́
Multidisciplinary Artist and Jeweller - Website
Catherine Blackburn, a Dënesųłinë́ artist and jeweller from English River First Nation, explores Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization, and the Indigenous feminine through stitchwork and storytelling. Her work has been featured in exhibitions such as Radical Stitch and Àbadakone, and she has received numerous accolades, including the Eiteljorg Fellowship and a Sobey Art Award longlist nomination.
Images by Zoya Lynch
Guná Jensen, Dakhká Tlingit and Tagish Khwáan
Painting - Instagram
Guná is a Dakhká Tlingit and Tagish Khwáan artist, dancer, educator, and lifelong student of Northwest Coast design from the Dahk’laweidi Clan. Her practice blends Tlingit formline with European materials like oil paint to explore Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization, and intergenerational healing. Deeply rooted in land, language, and lineage, her work challenges colonial narratives while honouring ancestral knowledge.
Delaney Keshena, Menominee
Beadwork and Moccasin Making - Website
Delaney Keshena is a moccasin maker and fine artist based in Minneapolis, MN, whose work uses hair, skin, and glass to explore stories of family, nation, and contemporary Indigenous experience. Their work has been exhibited internationally and supported by residencies with North House Folk School, Public Functionary, and The Aunte. In 2024, they were named a Harlan Boss Emerging Artist by the American Craft Council.
Images by Zoya Lynch
Image by Billy Hawk
Jaida Grey Eagle, Oglala Lakota
Photography and Beadwork - Website
Jaida Grey Eagle (Oglala Lakota) is a documentary photographer and journalist based in St. Paul, MN. A former Report for America Fellow with Sahan Journal, her award-winning work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, ProPublica, and Netflix. She holds a BFA in Photography from the Institute of American Indian Arts and co-produced the acclaimed documentary Sisters Rising.
