I am orchestrating belonging through beauty-making rituals that subvert ideas of authenticity imposed on Indigenous and cultural artists by external authority. By entwining Haida storytelling, a metaphor of Mexican masking, and the role of poetry in visual language, I highlight tensions between Indigenous and colonial coexistence. This work acknowledges the inherited burden of assimilation, offering an intricate and layered approach to identity that resists simplistic definitions.

I use color, form and sound to describe cultural persistence, disruption and resulting emotional states of grief, confusion, alienation and isolation. I address loss of language and material culture as well as complex relationship to identity. Through motifs of layering, translucence, and abstraction in combination with customary Haida design elements, I am evoking the struggle to hold onto culture while simultaneously celebrating deeply rooted, dynamic, living cultures that thrive despite living in a society shaped by colonial occupation.

At the heart of my work lies a deep questioning of how history is documented and remembered. Recordings, traditionally considered credible as documentation of events, are often viewed as unambiguous proof of what is "real" because they exist as tangible evidence of time passed. By changing the context of historical artifacts, I am repositioning the nature of memory. This deliberate transformation challenges our reliance on mechanical documentation. Instead, artifact objects become vessels of care and meaning, infused with ancestral energy— alive and charged with history and love.

Materials speak to cultural narratives while their treatment imbues them with a sense of movement and energy, subtly shifting viewers’ perception of the adorned objects. The process of adornment and transformation refuses static definitions, asserting that culture cannot be reduced to what is recorded. Rather, it is a living, spiritual energy, present in each cut, bead, brushstroke, thread and intention—a way to communicate love, continuity, and memory through time.

Objects and cultural symbols evolve and take on new meanings. By reinterpreting forms of documentation—whether through physical objects, paint or sound—I am challenging colonial notions of what it means to "remember" or "record." Through the layering of materials and meanings, I create a space where the viewer is invited to reconsider their relationship to both the objects and the histories they carry.

My work is an acceptance of an inherited identity and an affirmation of the power of cultural belonging. I am presenting a vision of a future rooted in love, connection, and the responsibility to honor past struggles and triumphs while ensuring cultural belonging for future generations.