Evelyn Mikayla Martin (Itsooaakii) of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana graduated with honors from the University of Washington in Seattle with a Bachelor of Arts in American Indian Studies. Mikayla was named to the Dean’s List, is a member of the National Collegiate Scholars Honor Society and is also a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success.
Mikayla is an art educator who works with Indigenous women, girls, and youth in her workshops to encourage participants to centre their cultural identities and healing through visual arts. Mikayla creates acclaimed vibrant self-portraits, billboards, and projects of reclamation.
She was the first Indigenous Visual Artist to sell her artwork in-store and collaborate with the Nordstrom Company and has had her paintings featured internationally including at the Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA), Center on Contemporary Art (Seattle, WA), Arts Commons Window Galleries: Portraits of a Piikani Woman (Calgary, AB), Stride Gallery (Calgary, AB), and La Macina di San Cresci (Tuscany, Italy). She also delivered a keynote at the Women’s March Seattle (January 2019), speaking about initiating an action plan for all people to join forces to end the global crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
itsooaakii.com
Instagram: @itsooaakii
NDN Girlhood
Ledge Gallery at Werklund Centre
January ## - April 4, 2024
Artist Statment:
My name is Evelyn Mikayla Martin (Itsooaakii) [Blackfeet Tribe of Montana] and my current practice as a visual artist reclaims my own personal narrative regarding the processes of navigating mental health, cultural identity, and reclamation of space as an Indigenous woman. My body of work primarily consists of acrylic on canvas self-portraits that highlight the complexities of engaging in cultural practices as a Blackfeet woman in 2024. Through my portrait paintings, I reclaim a sense of autonomy and agency over my own representation and narrative as a Blackfeet woman who grew up living out my traditional way of life. There is a unique responsibility and power specific to Blackfoot women that I showcase in my paintings. My work reminds Blackfoot women, girls, and Aa’woowaakii (Two-Spirit individuals) that they are more than this inflicted extraction and intergenerational trauma that they face. Martin expresses, “Prior to colonization and today, we continue to hold pivotal roles in our community that can only be fulfilled by our unique gifts and knowledge. We deserve to have space held for us where our voices can be centered, and our beauty can be celebrated.” I work to achieve this through my artwork that visually reflects this experience.