Beading Back and Forth

Upending Temporality through Knowledge Transmission

Abstract

Knowing glass beads as active agents – as beings – proffers forms of analysis untethered from linear temporality and immersed in story. Analytical frameworks steeped in Western philosophical traditions dictate limited understandings of art made by Indigenous peoples within the study of art histories, and as displayed and collected by museums and galleries. Despite museological conventions that reproduce entrenched processes of objectification and linear classifications, appreciating Indigenous beadwork through relational and dialogical epistemologies has gained traction within the study of Indigenous arts in Canada. In support of future generations of Indigenous makers in the prairie region, this analysis upends conventional colonial structures of knowledge entrenched in institutions.