I am more than a “Savage Birch” I am an Indigenous Matriarch wielding Ancestral Knowledge. Jillian Waterman is an Anishinaabe Cultural bearer, Philosopher, Artist and Fashion Designer. She is a Citizen of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan and descends from Potawatomi, Odawa and Ojibwe ancestors from Western and Central Michigan. Consumed by her curiosity, culture, humanity and senses, she has always driven to seek as much traditional Indigenous knowledge as she could. Over the past decade she has focused her efforts on the revitalization of traditional knowledge in healing and strengthening Indigenous communities within the Great Lakes Region. Working with the time honored ancestral art of Anishinaabe birchbark, she creates pieces such as canoes, wigwams, baskets, dishes and fashion items which range from the more traditional and practical to those which push the medium into exploring new and contemporary cultural spaces. Her work has been nationally and internationally featured in museums & galleries as well as finding practical application within native homes, rice camps, and sugarbushes.
Jillian enjoys traveling to native communities throughout the region where she often
collaborates with other tradition bearers on sharing knowledge and harvesting materials.
She frequently teaches classes on bark work to a variety of age groups at Universities, Museums, Nonprofits and Tribal programs and has partnered with other artists to build multiple birchbark and American elm bark canoes. She has served in the formal role of Artist in Residence at Trent University’s First People House of Learning, Bkejwanong First Nation, Akwesasne First Nation and
Saginaw Chippewa’s Ziibiwing Cultural Center where she led community builds of birch bark canoes and basket making workshops. As well has lectured on Indigenous philosophy, social and cultural issues. She has also moved into textiles and fashion design taking the traditional knowledges and turning them contemporary.
