Relational Maker

By KC Adams

Tan-si, kaa-kee-know too-tee-mak, hello all my relations, my name is KC Adams. My mother’s family is from Fisher River Cree Nation, my father is from Peguis Ojibway First Nation, and I am of the bear clan. I am a maker living in Winnipeg, Treaty-one territory, where I use numerous mediums: adornment, augmented and virtual reality, ceramics, installation, performance, photography, printmaking, public art, sculpture, and video. This variety of methods reflects how my female ancestors worked, cultivating and applying multiple skill sets to ensure the continuation of their families and communities. It is with them in mind that I present these new works. I honour the expertise they used to construct shelters, gather food, pick medicine, and make clothing and spiritual items. Their knowledge runs through me via oral histories, participation in ceremonies, and blood memory. I apply that ancestral knowledge to modern mediums to make as they did, and I teach the next generation to keep it flowing. 

The Indian Act dealt multiple blows to my Indigenous ancestors. Unwelcome political and social changes disrupted traditional methods of self-sustenance, and Western/settler labelling of their creations as “anthropological” or “craft” was a colonial strategy to suppress the brilliance of Indigenous traditional work. The Scots-Lakota scholar Carmen Robertson explains how Indigenous art was placed in the category of “craft to position it as lowbrow within the hierarchy of the Western art canon”. Consequently, Indigenous creations that used artistic mediums associated with “craft” received less prestige, recognition, and financial success. This pejorative also dismissed consideration of its rich cultural content. Lately, I bristle against the terms “craft” and “art.” These Eurocentric classifications do not recognize the rich historical traditions of Indigenous creations or their intricate ties to Indigenous culture. The making process of Indigenous makers encapsulates knowledge that extends beyond creativity or practicality; it is relational, spiritual, and complex. 

Last year, the term “Relational Making” came to me in a waking dream. Relational Making is the skillful production of objects, new media, or performances by an Indigenous person that infuses Indigenous epistemologies such as relational, locational, spiritual, communal, and holistic understanding. Métis scholar Sherry Farrell Racette explains, “Indigenous art reflects environmental knowledge and continues to be a response to the land, plants and animals, to family history and to present circumstances”. Relational Making reflects Indigenous worldviews within the creative process and allows for a bonding experience with the ancestors and the knowledge they carry, regardless of whether the material is land-based or a new technology. Before European contact, Indigenous communities designed objects that ensured survival. For example, community members decorated clothing, hunting tools, and spiritual items to communicate prayers for the continuation of their culture. Animism was tied to these items, meaning they embodied a spiritual life force. As a Relational Maker, I continue this practice of making items to support cultural values. I encourage other Indigenous makers to think critically about existing artistic terminologies and how our works are viewed through a colonial lens, and to consider using the term Relational Making or Relational Maker to honour our worldview. Pimohtēk mino-pimātisīwinihk mīna kisēwatisīwinihk

Treat yourself by viewing the above images, each as a full-page print.
This artist project is published in issue 40.3 of BlackFlash Magazine – get it here.

KC Adams (Flying Overhead in Circles Eagle Woman) creates work exploring technology and its relationship to her Indigenous identity and knowledge systems. Adams is a nationally and internationally known creator and educator with a BFA from Concordia University and an MA in Cultural Studies, Curatorial Stream from the University of Winnipeg.

This article is published in issue 2024 of BlackFlash magazine. Get this issue

This article is published in issue 40.3 of BlackFlash magazine. Get this issue