Donning a Black Hat & Mask

Métis artist Lisa Shepherd made her mask and hat during the pandemic’s third wave in Canada. “It was time to gather it all up, be a bad *ss, and don a black hat and mask – the kind that might be worn by the tough guy in an old western.” Her Métis flower beadwork channels feminine spirit and generational nurturing. She says: “I welcome the courage of all our Ancestors to wrap around me. Strength and resilience are in these beads…It is the stuff of healers…It carries with it the strength of our matriarchs, and for that, I am full of gratitude.”

Lisa Shepherd, Métis Artist, Canada

2021

Designed in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada

Made in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada

Recycled wool, Melton wool, glass beads, ribbon, tin cones, commercial tanned black hide, cotton, copper wire, hand-beaded

Royal Ontario Museum
2021.44.1.1-2, Generously supported by the Susan Joan Greenberg Fund