Beads, brains and Betty White. This week on Unreserved, meet Indigenous artists who are pushing the boundaries of traditional artforms.

Ruth Cuthand is a Plains Cree mixed medium artist who is particularly fascinated with beads and how their beauty intersects with some ugly things – like smallpox and COVID-19. Cuthand’s work blends the medical and scientific with the creative, and also provides commentary on the relationship between Canada and Indigenous people. The push and pull of her work is inspired by beads as a trading item, one that brought beauty to the community but also disease.

Contemporary art – like Cuthand’s – can be contemplative, but it can also be used to make a person laugh. Anishinaabe artist Blake Angeconeb says he creates art for the sole purpose of making people feel happy – something he accomplishes with his Woodlands style paintings that incorporate pop culture images like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Snoop Dog and yes, Betty White.

Artists like Angeconeb have been criticized at times for adding a contemporary twist to traditional artforms, but Cree cultural consultant Albert McLeod says Indigenous art is a means of communication and it continues to evolve, ever reflecting the changing world. McLeod asserts that while the Indian Residential School system tried to destroy traditional art forms, it did not succeed. Both he and Cuthand say that we are in a moment of reclamation – where Indigenous people are re-engaging with symbolism of the past and adapting it for the modern era.