Kssááhkom Áássksinima’tstohki: The Land is our Teacher

Additional Information

Kssááhkom Áássksinima’tstohki—a Blackfoot word meaning “the land is our teacher”—is an exhibition that honors the deep relationship between the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot people) and the places that shape identity, memory, and story. Through traditional art practices to contemporary artworks, the exhibition reveals how the land itself is a living relative, a library of stories, and a teacher of ways of being. Theses artistic traditions have been shaped by land, ceremony, and daily life to the innovative visual language of Niisitapi artists working today.

Rather than separating “past” and “present,” the exhibition shows what Blackfoot people have always known: art is a continuous flow, carried through families, landscapes, stories, and ways of knowing. Ancient forms live in contemporary works and new artistic practices echo the designs and teachings of our ancestors, reinforcing the Blackfoot people’s connection to our traditional territory and the knowledge that has been derived from nature.

The exhibition gathers Blackfoot artists whose work reflects long-held relationships with the land, animals and cosmos. Through hide painting, ledger art, digital art, beadwork, and quillwork these artists show the land not as scenery but as a storyteller. Niisitapi/Blackfoot art remains rooted in identity, and our close relationship to the environment.

Artworks by John Pepion, Bryce Many Finger-Singer, Jackie Larson Bread, Serene Weasel Traveller, and KIITOKII.

Artwork image: John Pepion, Blue Roan, ink, color pencil, and acrylic on antique ledger paper. Image courtesy of the artist.