I AM (NI’N NA) – Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design

I AM (NI’N NA)

Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design is pleased to introduce I AM (NI’N NA), a pottery exhibition by artist Nancy Oakley. The opening reception for I AM (NI’N NA) will take place on Thursday, April 14, 2022, at 6:00 p.m. in the Centre’s Loft.

Oakley’s practice is rooted in traditional knowledge gathered throughout her lifetime. She has spent the last 20 years living within her mother’s Mi’kmaq community of Eskasoni First Nation Reserve, and she was raised within her father’s Wampanoag community of Mashpee, Massachusetts, where he was sachem (chief).

Using hand-building that incorporate stone polishing and smoke firing with black ash basketry, beadwork, hieroglyphs, and sweetgrass embellishments, Oakley’s vessels are infused with this inherited spiritual, cultural, and traditional knowledge that honours both her personal and the collective experience of motherhood.

I AM (NI’N NA) will be on display in the Centre’s Loft until June 25, 2022.