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Art form, Indigenous culture and her life

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Art form, Indigenous culture and her life

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Belcourt was have a hard time in her life, during which she quit school, worked at menial jobs, took drugs and drank. Then she was befriended by Odawa Elder Wilfrid Peltier. And Peltier’s sister, Yvonne McRae, who sparked Belcourt’s fascination with traditional First Nations and Métis beadwork, by giving Belcourt a pair of beaded mukluks as a gift.
In an interview, she said:“All Indigenous art traditions come from an understanding of, and connection with, the land and its spirits. So that knowledge is encoded in the work or art. When you look at Indigenous art around the world, there is always that direct connection to the land. That understanding of how we’re supposed to live on the land is encoded into the design, the symbols and the things that we see.It’s no different with beadwork. So when I’m creating my art, it’s not a simple transferring of the beadwork patterns onto the canvas; it has to have the meaning behind it. So there will be certain plants or symbols in the painting that have a specific reason or coding behind them. It’s always a message about the respect for lands and waters: the respect we need to have for the earth and everything that is around us. As human beings, we are mistaken if we think we are superior to other species.”

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Medicines to Help Us: Traditional Métis Plant Use

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Medicines to Help Us: Traditional Métis Plant Use

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Based on Métis artist Christi Belcourt’s painting “Medicines to Help Us,” this innovative and vibrant resource honours the centuries-old healing traditions of Métis women. For this book, Christi Belcourt fuses her evocative artwork with Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Western Science. With contributions from Métis Elders Rose Richardson and Olive Whitford, as well as key Michif phrases and terminology, Medicines to Help Us is the most accessible resource relating to Métis healing traditions produced to date.