Video Tse’K’wa Heritage Society names summer 2025 artist in residence

CHARLIE LAKE, B.C. — With the backdrop of the Tse’K’wa cave behind her, Adrienne Greyeyes works with dedication and intent below a canopy, the carcass of a moose stretched as she scrapes hair from its hide.

Greyeyes, who works as an Indian day school coordinator with the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, has for a portion of the summer gone back to an undying passion: art. 

She has been announced as Tse’k’wa’s artist in residence for the summer of 2025. Greyeyes holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

According to a press release, Greyeyes will be incorporating “combined teachings from Dane-zaa and Nehiyaw Elders to develop her hide-making skills” during eight weeks in May and July.

The residency is fully funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Greyeyes is of Nehiyaw ancestry from Bigstone Cree Nation in what is now Alberta, but was born and grew up in Fort St. John.

“Moose hide holds nostalgia and safety to a lot of people,” said Greyeyes during a break. “[It] brings so many people back to when they were younger.

“This is such a meditative practice where I find myself re-visiting a lot of those things and it just puts me in that kind of head space.”

In traditional Indigenous cultures, preparing animal hides for purposes such as clothing, shelter and art requires a labour-intensive process.

This involves hide cleaning; soaking; fleshing; scraping; softening using the animal’s brains, known as ‘braining’; and smoking to give it a tanned appearance.

The finished hides will be utilized in Greyeyes’ printmaking, artwork which she says will display “the reciprocal relationship that we have with the land we grew on through using hides that were grown on the same territory that my body has also been nourished from,” and acknowledge “our relationship is ever-changing and challenged due to colonial lifestyle impositions.”

“Not only is it sustaining us in being in clothing and being part of our ceremonies,” said Greyeyes. “But it also teaches. You’re really close to this animal the whole time you’re working with [it] and you’re really close to that spirit.”

Greyeyes will hold open-studio hours at Tse’K’wa in Charlie Lake, where the public can view her work and ask questions.  

Greyeyes will be at the Tse’K’wa cave on May 14th, 15th, and 20th.  The second half of her residency will be on July 7th, 9th, 10th, 14th, 16th and 17th, when people can learn more about her.

The time for all days is between 11 a.m. and 12 noon, and admission is free.

The Tse’K’wa cave is an Indigenous-owned national heritage site, owned by Doig River First Nation, West Moberly First Nations and Prophet River First Nation.

Tse’K’wa, translating to “Rock House,” is a cave with history tracing back some 12,000 years, and was used by Dane-zaa ancestors since the Ice Age.

More information about Greyeyes’ residency is available on the Tse’K’wa website.