Iisoimaahkaa/Driving Along the Beach/Blair Many Fingers
Featured: March 8, 2024
I wasn't a reader for most of my life and only read a handful of books until I took a literature course with Dr. Christoher Grignard. I did not know there was a whole world of Indigenous literature where stories of real people resonated with my life experiences as an Indigenous man. Indigenous stories from the works of Blackfoot authors James Welch and Percy Bullchild, and also other Indigenous authors like Richard Wagamese, Richard Van Camp, and Gregory Scofield, have provided the spark which ignited my drive to learn and experience how atsiníkssin/Blackfoot stories are intimately connected to the land in which my people have inhabited since time immemorial. I could say that my influences are not only Indigenous authors but, more substantially, my influencers are Blackfoot elders, ancestors, storytellers, and the land - Kitáwahsinnooni/Blackfoot territory.
- Describe your artistic style.
I have to say that most of my storytelling took place along the sandstone cliffs at Aisinai'pi/Writing-On-Stone, where petroglyphs and pictographs are imbued with spirit, stories, and knowledge. I can't take credit for my artistic style because rock art and Naatoyitapiiksi helped me develop my oral storytelling style. It was like I was a conduit for their stories. For real!
- In your free time, what do you like to do?
Time is a white man's construct, so I tend to run on Indigenous standard time. Ha! I like spending time with my partner and family; I have two kitómahkotaniksi/older daughters and an issitsimaan/brand new baby girl, so when I am not in class, my time is spent with my loved ones. I also love going on long walks along Wally's Beach (LoL), and adventures to Blackfoot sacred sites are pretty alight. I can't wait to show my baby girl these special places.
- What advice would you give aspiring artists?
Allow yourself to be vulnerable. A good reader makes a good writer, but our life experiences, good and bad, make us great storytellers. For Indigenous aspiring artists, I would say to learn into your tribabl stories, songs, and ceremonies because these are the lifeways in which we become conveyors of beauty. Also, I once heard Gregory Scofield say on a podcast that, as Indigenous people, "We are all writing our way out of trauma; we are all writing our way out of colonization; we are all writing ourselves back into our history, back into our languages, back into the sense of who we are." These words continue to attach themselves to my creative spirit.