A Yellowknife-born traditional Native artist is returning to her hometown this week. Caroline Blechert says her project, Creations for Continuity, is about carrying on Northern traditions while acknowledging a modern and developing relationship with the lands.
“With my art, I definitely see myself wanting to create more things that reflect my traditions, but yet we live in a modern society,” she says. “And for me as an Inuvialuit, our culture is very intertwined with adapting because we were such nomadic beings.”
She creates her jewellery art using traditional materials like porcupine quills and tanned caribou hide as well as urban materials like beads, crystals and metals.
“So reflecting on that notion of being nomadic and adapting to our current surroundings, I see myself using materials that are very much reflective of our society these days that kind of help me, as an artist, survive. So being able to connect the traditional and the modern and blend those together is sort of in a way my way of survival,” says Blechert.
Blechert has also recently started a collective of other Indigenous artists.
“My business is catering now towards uplifting other Indigenous artists, so that’s something I’m working on with my website,” she says.
“My business is catering now towards uplifting other Indigenous artists, so that’s something I’m working on with my website,” she says.
“To not just feature my own work but also feature Indigenous artists, not necessarily from the North, but from all over, so they can also have a platform to help them rise.”
Blechert says she’s excited to be back in her hometown of Yellowknife. “Hopefully, I’ll get to see some familiar and some new faces,” she says.
She will be having a pop-up sale of her work at Northern Images this evening from 5 to 8 p.m.
