ḵaahláang an unsád, iitl' tláawhla ḵuyaadang (to know what is inside, to love what we are made of), 2024
cassette tape, deer leather, felt, antique buttons, abalone buttons, glass beads, copper beads, red cedar bark, yellow cedar bark, white water turquoise, lapis lazuli beads, jade beads, sinew, sterling silver beads, gold filled beads, bone beads, bone buttons, thread, red cedar shavings from two totem poles, copper buttons, blue bird feathers, trade beads, and the cord I wore my copper on for 4 years.
4 x 24 x 1 inch
side b
Persistence story. gahl hal káaygaagang / she was born with it. (Within an Inch of Your White), 2025
etched cassette tape, walnut loom, woven merino wool yarn, devil’s club, dentallium shells, mother of pearl buttons, United States Department of Interior archives from Southeast Alaska, mulberry paper, white feather, cord, snail shell, crystal, glass beads
16.25 x 10.25 x 7.5 inches
An ancestral face emerges from an Insecure Mix of materials and memory. Drawing from Bureau of Indian Affairs records detailing the sale of a Haida totem, the work confronts how cultural patrimony was turned into currency for a community under duress. The figure embodies both inheritance and rupture—devil’s club for healing and protection, woven fringe recalling Ravenstail and Naaxiin designs. gahl hal káaygaagang—she was born with it—asserts that making itself is a form of survival: a generative act of love that carries Haida knowledge forward within and beyond the white line of history.
insecure mix. inheritance story. kángwaay/what was left for me, 2025
cassette tape, waxed cord, mother of pearl buttons, murano glass mercury tubes, glass beads, false pearls, inherited costume jewelry, t’áaw/copper shields, tiger’s eye, magpie feather.
20 x 5.5 x 1 inches
