Nancy Oakley
[ WABANAKI ARTIST: 2022]
Ombré 2022
Nancy E. Oakley is a first nation artist of Mi’kmaq and Wampanoag descent. She was raised in Mashpee, Massachusetts, where her father was Supreme Sachem (grand chief) of the Wampanoag Nation. After art school, she decided to move to her mother’s reserve known as the Eskasoni First Nation reserve in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to better understand her Mi’kmaq heritage.
She has always been involved in art her whole life. As a small child, she started dance traditionally and make her own regalia and beadwork. She eventually went to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to study photography and tried her hand at traditional pottery. After graduating, she moved to Nova Scotia and studied for a year at the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, taking courses in weaving, jewellery, photography and pottery.
As an artist, she creates culturally significant vessels that imbue her spiritual and traditional knowledge while honouring her role as a mother. She creates her pieces by using the wheel or hand to build larger sculptural vessels. She finds inspiration in nature and the creation of life. She incorporates traditional practices in her creations, such as stone polishing and smoke firing.
She has also begun to recreate the traditional pottery techniques of the Mi’kmaq, by harvesting and processing local clay while traditionally firing pieces in an open fire. These pieces are later embellished with traditional Mi’kmaq black ash basketry, intricate beadwork, and/or the spiritual element of sweetgrass.