Sky Flower Earrings (A)

Size: 2" x 2.5"
Materials: 14k gold findings, vintage and contemporary glass seed beads, blue deer hide

b.1991 Canada
Concordia Graduate - MFA (2025)

Sierra Barber (she/her) is an Upper Mohawk / mixed-European artist from Port Dover, ON, registered at the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. Sierra completed an MFA in 2025 in the Painting and Drawing program at Concordia University in Tiohtiá:ke/ Montreal, QC. She graduated from OCAD University with a BFA in 2015, majoring in Sculpture and Installation with a minor in the Indigenous Visual Culture Program.  Her work has been shown in the annual Indigenous Art juried exhibition at the Woodland Cultural Centre, internationally in Aotearoa (New Zealand) at HOEA! Gallery and in the 7th edition of the Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA), Creation Stories, at Stewart Hall Art Gallery and the Rimouski Regional Museum. Her latest solo exhibition, Carrying Stories, was held at daphne, (Indigenous artist-run centre) in Montreal, QC.

"As an Upper Mohawk and mixed-European artist, my paintings reflect and balance the layered experiences of my identity. Through oil painting and beadwork, two historically contrasting materials, I create a language that interprets my inner world. I refer to Haudenosaunee visual and material culture and create a space to explore my relationship to stories, both known and unknown. This process reclaims and connects me to the stories that are a part of me and that I belong to.

In recent work, I reference souvenirs/ beaded whimsies created by Mohawk and Tuscarora communities for the tourism industry in Niagara Falls that took place in the 19th century. This style of beadwork appealed to tourists as the aesthetics drew upon Victorian floral design and symbolism. Haudenosaunee cultural meanings were also present, hidden within the pieces through the association of plants which created a shared yet hidden visual language (Biron, 2012). I’ve always been drawn to these souvenirs, knowing that there were stories embedded into the beadwork as a means of cultural survival. Strawberries in Haudenosaunee culture are a symbol of life, they are featured prominently in souvenir beadwork  and remain a personally charged symbol of resilience. 

I am considering the stories that exist within the beadwork, that were meant to be interpreted by the next generation, and relate them to my own experiences. I use imagery and symbolism from the beaded souvenirs as a vehicle to connect the cultural with the personal.  I use the same colour palette in my work  and cotton velveteen that was used to create the original beadwork I’m referencing. The act of retracing these patterns and repeating these stories is a way for me to reclaim them and to carry these stories into the future. My work explores themes of transformation, connection, memory and continuity."