Ohpinikewin

Nancy E. Oakley is a Mi’kmaq and Wampanoag artist living on Eskasoni First Nation reserve in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian arts,
in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she studied photography and Pottery. She then moved to Nova Scotia, where she studied at Nova Scotia School of Art and Design,taking courses in
photography, ceramics, weaving and jewelry making before leaving to start her family. She is now a mother of 6 and a grandmother of 7 and counting.

Nancy’s artistic journey embodies the richness of indigenous heritage and a deep connection to the land. Through hand shaped softly curved pottery vessels, Nancy creates culturally significant pieces that imbue her traditional knowledge and honors her role as a woman, mother and grandmother. In an intrinsic collaboration with Mother Earth, Oakley’s expression of knowledge, feelings and experiences can be seen in the processes of her pieces, which are polished with a stone and smoke fired with seaweed, sawdust and fir tips, allowing the smoke to talk through the pottery.

Nancy’s work can be seen in stores and galleries around Canada and the USA

Nancy E. Oakley

Oakleaves Native Creations

nanoak@hotmail.com

www.oakleavesnativecreations.com

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