Nicole Paul

Prince Albert, Saskatchewan

Oil paints, Photography, Beading, Drum-making

I identify as a Cree-Métis visual artist with my ancestry being of Cree, Sioux, and Métis from my father’s side and European from my mothers.

I currently live in Melbourne, Australia, where I have just completed my Graduate research degree at the University of Melbourne. I enrolled in the Masters of Fine Arts - Indigenous Arts and Culture course offered by the Victorian College of the Arts and the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development. My research, presented as creative works and a thesis, considers cultural identity and representation in relation to contemporary Cree-Métis art-based practices, practiced in a transnational Indigenous context. Uniting mentorship and artmaking, my research entwines Indigenous art practices and knowledges through techniques of artmaking and attention to protocols from Canada and Australia. Connecting to country and family from home and abroad, the research is a way to investigate, deepen, and understand my Cree-Métis identity, rooted across time, people, and place.

Looking at my body of artwork produced as a whole, my work is incredibly diverse in choices of mediums, subject matter, themes, concepts, and style. I believe this diversity and opportunity to experiment with my art helps allow me to best express myself and the stories I try to tell within my work.

A large part of my artwork is my method of understanding my Indigenous identity and heritage, as well as the present-day and historical conflicts of Indigenous peoples faced throughout Canadian and global contexts. I hope to stimulate conversations toward reconciliation and cultural revitalisation.