Wood medium

[Riley]

What inspired you, if anything, to start this style of painting on
wood?

[laur...@lauraleekharris.com]

I am inspired by my Indigenous ancestry and the lessons and spiritual
depth of my cultures. Having Sioux, Cree, Chipewyan, Montagnais,
Ojibwe, Assinaboine and Oji-Cree, I find learning what I have painted
based on the imagery/teachings within my culture fascinating because I
really don’t know what’s going to emerge in my work with the imagery
that afterwards I retrace my steps back to my culture. My Native
Ancestry is also mixed with French, Irish and English. Those ones I
knew about, but I had no clue as to my Indigenous background until
1994 when my Uncle emerged from the Okanogan with our ancestry and his
missing entity in our lives up until then. For we did not know he
existed and my mother hung up the phone on him when he said he was her
brother, thinking he was one of those random inappropriate callers.
But, he was adopted at the age of two and later in his life, hunted us
down looking for his family to find a part of himself. I researched
further on my ancestry after he did and found the Assinaboine and the
Oji-Cree in our heritage. But growing up, my Grandmother would hint
but never tell us about our Native Heritage because of the harmful
racism at the time, so Native people’s hid their identities if they
could, to protect their children, from the stigma of race hatred
forever haunting them. After learning my history I was shocked at the
injustice to my ancestors, done over the past 500 years but inspired
at my culture all at the same time and so I told my story my way; in a
bittersweet way, seeing the beauty and sadness as one from the insides
of a tree and my subconscious journey inside me.