Chief Lady Bird is a Chippewa and Potawatomi artist from Rama First Nation and Moosedeer Point First Nation, who is currently based in Rama. She graduated from OCAD University in 2015 with a BFA in Drawing and Painting and a minor in Indigenous Visual Culture. Chief Lady Bird’s art practice is continuously shapeshifting but always influenced by her passion for empowering and uplifting Indigenous folks through the subversion of colonial narratives. She utilizes her social media platform(s) along with digital illustration, acrylic painting, mixed media portraits, and murals to centre contemporary truths and envision Indigenous Futurisms by portraying intersectional Indigenous experiences and asserting our presence on stolen land.
Specifically, much of her work is based on the stories we tell through the reclamation of our bodies and sexuality, which often intersects with land sovereignty and language reclamation, and activates dialogues about cultural appropriation, reconnection to land-based knowledge and various forms of love (self love, lateral love, ancestral love). She hopes that her images can be a catalyst for reimagining our relationship with the land, each other, and ourselves.
Chief Lady Bird has illustrated for notable organizations such as Flare Magazine, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Scholastic, Audible and Vice News to name a few. In 2019 she provided the illustrations for the animated video “Land Acknowledgements And Why Are They Important” by Selena Mills and Local Love, which has been circulated widely throughout many educational institutions to guide educators toward a deeper understanding of the significance of Land Acknowledgements. She has created the book cover designs for Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves and Hunting By Stars UK releases, and has created book covers for several Indigenous authors across turtle island. Her most recent book cover design is for The End Of This World: Climate Justice In So-Called Canada. In 2018 Chief Lady Bird designed the #IndigenousPeoplesDay Turtle Island emoji for Twitter, which was also re-released in June 2021.
For Chief Lady Bird, children's book illustrations have been a fulfilling practice. Providing literature to Indigenous children that is by Indigenous authors and illustrators is important for building self-esteem and carving space in colonial institutions for Indigenous stories, imagination and education. She has illustrated Nibi’s Water Song (Canada 2019, US 2021), Together We Drum Our Hearts Beat As One (2022) and Smile So Big (2022).
She is currently serving her community as a member of council, and is honoured to hold this position.
Email: chiefladybird@gmail.com
Instagram: @chiefladybird
Twitter: @chiefladybird
Facebook: chiefladybirdart
Website: http://www.chiefladybirdart.tumblr.com/
“Chief Lady Bird’s growing body of work continues to intercept the ongoing colonial present by illuminating and inscribing different historical narratives, encouraging deeper engagements with the more-than-human world and ecological and spiritual wisdom.”
- Curatorial statement by Shalon WH
“She is an embodiment of Indigenous feminist empowerment, actively attuned to the moon’s energies and cycles. Aligning herself with the moon and the land, and the corresponding imperatives of protecting the land, Chief Lady Bird’s works newly energize ecofeminist aesthetics and politics—here attuned specifically to colonial histories of violence against the land and the related violences against Indigenous people and, especially, Indigenous women and 2 Spirit folks."
- Curatorial Statement by Lauren Fournier
“Chippewa and Potawatomi artist, Chief Lady Bird, brings the story to life with vivid colours and playfulness, even including a depiction of her own dog as Nibi’s side kick. “I lived with Nibi for a long time before I finally built the world around her, and I found her to be so sweet and humble in her fight for clean water. She reminds me to stay kind hearted, rooted and steadfast in my day-to-day work to educate.”
- Shelby Lisk, APTN review of Nibi’s Water Song