Chief Lady Bird (also known as Nancy King) is a Chippewa and

Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...

artist, illustrator, educator and community activist from Rama First Nation and Moosedeer Point First Nation, who currently resides in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Ontario. Chief Lady Bird (Ogimaakwebnes) is her spirit name, which she uses professionally as an artist. Her art is focused on foregrounding the experiences of Indigenous women.

Career

Chief Lady Bird is known for her collaborative murals, digital illustrations, children's book illustrations, and contributions of Indigenous art to local spaces in Toronto. Her work can be found around Toronto including murals on Queen Street West,

Beverley Beverley is a market town, market and minster (church), minster town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre ...

and D'Arcy Street,

Ravina Gardens Ravina Gardens was an ice hockey arena located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It supported amateur hockey from before World War I until 1961, and professional hockey briefly in the 1920s. The location of the demolished arena is parkland, and is known ...

, Withrow Public School,

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public university, public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District, although i ...

and Underpass Park under the

Don Valley Parkway The Don Valley Parkway (DVP) is a municipal expressway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which connects the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto with Highway 401. North of Highway 401, it continues as Highway 404. The parkway run ...

. Chief Lady Bird created the Turtle Island

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typed conversat ...

for

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

National Indigenous Peoples Day National Aboriginal Day (informally National Indigenous Peoples Day) is a day recognizing and celebrating the cultures and contributions of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Indigenous peoples of Canada. The day was first celebrated in 199 ...

. She is "part of an informal digital network of activists, organizing their social media communities around Indigenous issues". In 2019, Chief Lady Bird illustrated the children's book ''Nibi's Water Song'', written by

Sunshine Tenasco Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when t ...

and published by

Scholastic Canada Scholastic Corporation () is an American multinational publishing, education, and media company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials for schools, parents, and children. Products are distributed via retail and on ...

. This book features her dog Ludo as a character. A review of the book in ''

Quill & Quire ''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...

'' called Chief Lady Bird's work "colourful and expressive". Chief Lady Bird's work has been featured in '' Chirp Magazine''. Her work was also featured on the cover of the United Kingdom release for ''

The Marrow Thieves ''The Marrow Thieves'' is a young adult dystopian novel by Métis Canadian writer Cherie Dimaline, published on September 1, 2017, by Cormorant Books through its Dancing Cat Books imprint. Plot After climate change decimates the existing ...

'' by Cherie Dimaline. In addition to this, Chief Lady Bird's work has appeared in solo or group exhibitions at Twist Gallery, the Gladstone Hotel, Gallery of Northumberland, Arts Square, the Lieutenant Governor's Suite,

Yorkville Village Yorkville Village is a shopping mall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Yorkville neighbourhood, along Avenue Road, north of Bloor Street. Prior to its redevelopment which concluded on January 25, 2016, it was known as Hazelton Lan ...

, Super Wonder Gallery, the Carlu,

Harbourfront Centre Harbourfront Centre is a key cultural organization on the waterfront of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at 235 Queens Quay West. Established as a crown corporation in 1972 by the Government of Canada to create a waterfront park, it became ...

, Summer in the City Gallery and the Woodland Cultural Centre. Her mural ''The South , Zhaawanong'' was commissioned by the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beve ...

and installed in the gallery's Robert Harding Hall in June 2023.

Education

Chief Lady Bird holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from

OCAD University Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

, where she studied drawing and painting and minored in Indigenous Visual Culture. She notes that "my art practice was about bringing experience from my major into my minor and vice versa."

Awards and nominations

References

{{Authority control 1993 births Living people Artists from Ontario OCAD University alumni Ojibwe people Canadian muralists Canadian women muralists