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Beauty and Resilience:
Reclaiming Métis History and Women’s Traditions in the
Beaded Paintings of Christi Belcourt
Rebecca Baird
Contemporary Research Methods
Professor Lynne Milgram and Barbara Rauch
November 22, 2010
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I have chosen to study the work of contemporary Cree-Métis artist, Christi
Belcourt. I am interested in understanding the methods she is using from a shared cultural
perspective. Her work exhibits a deep respect for the beauty of the natural world as it has
historically been represented through the cultural traditions of Métis beadwork.
Both Christi and I are Cree-Métis women who share a collective history as First
Nations women. It is a history that is not separate from our artistic practices and methods
of research which are bound by a ‘land’ memory and narrative and are distinctly
historical, cultural, and by necessity, political. As Cree author Neal McLeod says, “There
is a discord between ancient memory that is embodied in our lives and our physical
being, and the experience of modernity and colonialism. These two sets of narratives and
embodied ways of understanding the world are in conflict.”1 In his book, Cree Narrative
Memory, McLeod references Cree poet Louise Halfe’s poetry collection Blue Marrow for
her many insights regarding narrative memory: “She sees collective memory as a gift and
intergenerational process, a way for Native people to find their way out of colonialism.”2
By analyzing Belcourt’s work, I will explore issues and methods that relate to the
historical and cultural histories of First Nations' women artists and also how their
methods relate to my own art practice. The research methods that I will use to analyze her
work are methods similar to those she herself employs: a combination of both the
scientific Western perspective and the time-honoured traditions of our shared ancestry.
These methods will include observation, interviewing, self-discovery, grounded theory
and historical investigations, self-reflection, technique and process, experimentation and
interdisciplinary methods which include merging traditions.
1
Neal McLeod, Cree Narrative Memory from Treaties to Contemporary Times (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan:
Purich Publishing Limited, 2007), 97.
2
Ibid., 9.
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OBSERVATION, SELF-DISCOVERY, AND STUDIO PRACTICE
Belcourt’s research methods involve a continuous process of self-discovery. She
is a self-taught painter who also creates traditional beadwork from an historical identity.
Her research techniques assume an objective quality of quiet observation of actual plants,
which ‘speak’ to her in a variety of ways. After utilizing photography to capture and
study the overall imagery of individual plants, she returns to her studio to carefully search
for further information found in reference books about the plants and traditional Métis
beading. Within the studio, she begins creative and critical research investigations to reimagine images using creative design methodologies. She pursues a rigorous sketching
process, simplifying and reducing her field photographs into symbolic shapes reminiscent
of the original beadwork of her Métis ancestors. Belcourt’s studio work strongly
illustrates Graeme Sullivan’s theory of “artful thinking and mindful practice” as research.
Historical Research into Métis Beading:
Techniques, Patterns, and Women’s Teachings and Honoring
Woven within her artistic practice is the knowledge that time and again Belcourt
uses historical Métis beadwork patterns to honour the beautiful artistic legacy of her
women ancestors, bringing a sense of continuity between the past and present Métis
through her work. Although this may appear to be a form of anthropological research, she
references her process not as an Other, but from her own center. Similarly, I feel that my
own research is not an observation of Christi Belcourt as an Other but as a ‘sister’. In the
process of researching historical Métis beading techniques, and in addition to the
beadwork designs themselves, she also uncovers the history of the women and the
people’s history. Her methods are distinctly cultural. Belcourt’s research for the book
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Beadwork: First Peoples' Beading History and Techniques is an example of this. As the
title suggests, the book explores the history of beadwork, materials, techniques, and
applications embedded within the cultural and spiritual significance of First Nations
culture. These techniques include active listening, observation, practice and presence.
These teachings are shared in a traditional relationship such as learning a skill from a
grandmother, auntie, or a community of women. As both a theoretical and literal
grounding in her paintings, Belcourt has found a way to weave a complex of systems and
relationships into her art using Metis historical beadwork.
This is illustrated in the following two images. In Figure I, a partial image of a
historical Métis beadwork piece is shown. It is a beaded hide pillow or pad for a saddle
which is usually stuffed with deer hair and held in place with a girth strap, circa 1870.We
know this is an example of traditional Métis beadwork because one of its characteristics
are the colours of the flowers which are embroidered in shades of pink to red, with buds
in shades of blue and purple. The flower centres were white or dark yellow and the leaves
green. Most important to the historical design is the focal centre of the flowers. The
second work, Figure 2, is a piece from Belcourt’s series called Great Métis of Our Time
(2006). Along the sides of one of the portraits—the portrait of Jean Teillet, who was the
great-grand niece of Louis Riel- Belcourt, has painted traditional-style Métis beadwork
designs. By placing traditional Métis designs symmetrically on both sides of the portrait,
Belcourt is acknowledging the past artistic contributions of Métis women's beading as an
essential part of the well being of Métis people. At the same time, she is portraying a
contemporary individual whose determination to seek justice for Métis rights has
changed the course of history for the Métis Nation in modern times.
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In my own research for this paper, I learned that the trailing flower designs
became the indicator of Métis handicraft. As with Belcourt’s process, the origin of the
Métis beadwork designs came from methods of experimentation and the merging of
various art traditions. The use of floral design, which is now strongly associated with the
Métis, actually originated from the quillwork traditions practiced before the 1840s and
later the introduction of embroidery from contact with the Roman Catholic Mission.
As Belcourt continues her research and practices, her exploration is extending and
evolving into an awareness of the medicinal qualities of the plants themselves traditional
knowledge. Increasingly in her personal life, she is gathering and harvesting plants for
medicinal purposes with her fiancé who is a Traditional Medicine Person.
Belcourt makes connections across boundaries and disciplines using
interdisciplinary methods such as referencing her Metis ancestral history, active listening
with traditional elders, and the gathering of scientific information. Through these
methods she gains knowledge of the many therapeutic properties of the plants which she
includes in her paintings. Some of the traditional medicines she includes in her work are
berries, which are considered women’s medicine. Strawberries, raspberries,
chokecherries, blueberries—each one arrives at a certain time and each has many
teachings. In the calendar, N'ginaajiw—My Spirit is Beautiful, Self-Esteem Awareness
Campaign for First Nations Women, the 'berries' are highlighted from the months of June
to September. This calendar shares women's moon teachings. For example, June is
known as the sixth moon of Creation, which is the Strawberry Moon. One of the
teachings of the strawberry is included in the calendar as it relates to self-esteem. “The
medicine of the strawberry is reconciliation. It was during this moon cycle that
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communities usually held their annual feasts, welcoming everyone home, regardless of
their differences, over the past year, letting go of judgment and/or self-righteousness.”3
There are many teachings that can be shared from one object. For example, I
remember sitting in a circle at New Credit Powwow in 2004. The Elder asked everyone
to share one teaching they knew of the strawberry. One person spoke of the seeds
representing the future of the unborn children. Another person spoke of the green top as
medicine and it was good to eat because most of the health benefits were there. Another
person spoke of how when you cut into the strawberry, it reveals the shape of a heart.
From her studies of the diversity and complexity of Native plants in her area,
Belcourt has been continuously educating herself concerning the many different aspects
of biodiversity, with a particular emphasis on the subject of the interdependency of all
life on the planet. With her work, she illustrates how our existence is intricately
interwoven with the existence of all other species on this planet.
CREE NARRATIVE MEMORY
“Stories hold the echo of generational experience.”4
First Nations and Métis cultures are oral cultures. Cree oral stories form a
narrative memory of how we as Native peoples came to be, how our ancestors interpreted
the world, how they lived, and how that narrative memory continues to be retold, offering
us guidance and renewal for today. Despite centuries of colonial intervention and
attempts at either assimilation or genocide, the original languages, which were of Being,
have kept alive the essence of narrative memory as interrelationship through a time that
3
N'ginaajiw—My Spirit is Beautiful, Self-Esteem Awareness Campaign for First Nations Women,
sponsored by Union of Ontario Indians/Anishinabek Nation, Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians.
North Bay, Ontario, 2005.
4
McCloud, Cree Narrative Memory, 1.
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has no beginning or end. In Indigenous languages, “There is no Word for Time,” as in the
title of Evan T. Pritchard’s book on the Algonquin people: "They don't write in metaphor,
they speak it; they don't recite poetry, they live it."5
The importance of a narrative memory is an essential element in the work of both
Belcourt and myself. As McLeod states in Cree Narrative Memory, “the importance of
our ancestors is that if my great grand mother did not exist I would not exist.”6 As
Indigenous Cree Women artists, our artistic language is a distinct language formed by our
experiences with the land and our communities. Our stories, which are inside of us,
around us, and through us remind us of who we are.
MERGING TRADITIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES
As visual artists of a Cree-Métis background, both Christi and I speak from the
support and knowledge of our known traditional ancestries and our blood memories. In
Belcourt’s early work she began by placing a few ‘dots’ within her paintings to suggest
beadwork. Her process has now developed to where entire floral patterns are created in
dots by dipping the end of a paintbrush or knitting needle into the paint and pressing it
onto canvas. The effect is thousands of raised dots per canvas that simulate and look like
beadwork.
From our interview, Christi explains how her personal artistic ‘language’ and
work began to evolve when she moved to Whitefish Falls in 2004 ‘where she now lives’:
‘Moving away from the city allowed me the freedom to study plants, and to get to
know the land on my own schedule… Close to the land I'm focused, I'm relaxed -
Pritchard, Evan, No Word for Time The Way of the Algonquin People, Coucnil Oak Books, LLC, San
Francicso, CA, Tulsa, OK, 1997
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McCloud, Cree Narrative Memory, 8.
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I've totally changed, and my art has benefited in every way imaginable because of
it.”
An integral part of Belcourt’s evolving personal artistic language is a return to the
land and into the spiritual traditions and practices of her people that honour balance,
relationships, and healing. In our interview, she shared her practice of offering tobacco,
one of the four traditional medicines, whether it is in the field or in her daily painting
practice. The offering of tobacco is a First Nations relationship practice of honouring the
language of our deep connection with every living being on this planet in a humble and
respectful way. She explained how she greets the plants as brother or sister, and in
essence, she is thanking them for what they are choosing to give her so that she may help
others.
In her daily studio practice she smudges herself, her paints, and her work with
medicines and says a prayer asking her helpers to assist with colours and for the patience
to do her work well and skillfully. She also asks that her paintings will bring about good
feelings in those who view it. She requests that her work can help people to connect with
their own spiritual selves and with the spirits that live in everything all around us. In
closing, she thoughtfully makes an appeal that her paintings will help people and will
inspire them to be kind and loving towards the earth, all living things and each other.
First Nations people believe when we are making something we are like the Creator, so it
is important to have good thoughts, for everything that is made has a spirit. Through the
interview process between Christi and myself, I was able to retrieve meaningful
information about her reality as a First Nations female artist.
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In the last few years, Belcourt has begun creating larger works, Figure 3 where
larger themes are visible. I asked her about this. Belcourt says she is motivated by what
would be characterized as political aims. The paintings by their size alone cannot be
overlooked or ignored. It is through the large works that she brings forward an awareness
of the beauty and resilience of her culture that can no longer be disregarded. Winona
Laduke, an Indigenous ‘activist’ scholar, in her book, Recovering the Sacred, explores
the passing of history and knowledge from one generation to the next in a similar way
that Belcourt’s work celebrates the past contributions of the Metis in Canada through the
process of bringing forward the colourful beadwork of her culture.7
When all First Nations were facing an onslaught of oppressive governmental
policies during the early and middle 19th century, the colorful beadwork of the Métis
represented defiance in the face of genocidal strategies. The colorful beadwork art form
became and continues to be a bold, bright, evident gesture of the Métis to remain highly
visible. Just as in Belcourt’s large works, the highly decorative clothing, including
numerous items used in everyday life, proclaims the same visual cultural message: As
Métis, we will not be ignored.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I have come to understand Belcourt’s artistic research methods are
an ongoing process of observation and self-discovery which inform her studio practice
investigations. The utilization of these many methods have provided her with the choices
to shape and convey a shifting canvas of contemporary forms of memories across
disciplines of Métis history and First Nations women’s traditions.
7
Winona Laduke, Recovering the Sacred the Power of Naming and Claiming (Cambridge, MA: South End
Press, 2005).
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What successfully distinguishes both our art practices is the honouring of our
cultural traditions through methods which affirm the validity and strength of our
traditions. Our use of materials and themes illustrate aspects of our Cree/Métis cultures in
a contemporary context that reflects and celebrates our realities as First Nations women.
Most importantly, I discovered that what are new understandings of research methods are
also old processes of traditional Cree-Metis practice: processes that are unfolding as acts
of remembering and reclaiming.
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Bibliography
Belcourt. Christi. “Purpose in Art, Métis Identity, and Moving Beyond the Self.” Native
Studies Review 17, no. 2 (2008): 143-153.
Laduke, Winona. Recovering the Sacred the Power of Naming and Claiming. Cambridge,
MA: South End Press, 2005.
Luker, Kristen. Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences Research in an Age of Info Glut.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008.
McLeod, Neal. Cree Narrative Memory from Treaties to Contemporary Times.
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Purich Publishing Limited, 2007.
Sullivan, Graeme. Art Practice as Research Inquiry in Visual Arts. Thousand Oaks: Sage
Publications, 2005.
Young, David, Grant Ingram, and Lise Swartz. Cry of the Eagle: Encounters with a Cree
Healer. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989.
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