The work of Pat Bruderer, known as Half Moon Woman, will host an art exhibit that opens on July 30 at Wanuskewin Galleries. The wearable art collection will be highlighted by Half Moon Woman’s amazing birch bark biting designs. The wearable pieces will be housed on mannequins that will display the original birch bark work with a unique technological twist. Laser etching will allow the original pieces to be transferred to traditional materials such as hide, fur, bone and metals creating head to toe looks. Juxtaposed with the wearable art will be the original artist-created bitings. 

A statement from the Galleries notes that the show will push the boundaries on the intersection of ancient cultural art forms, modern technologies and the occupation of contemporary spaces. There will be 13 pieces telling the story of Indigenous people through time starting with pre contact to colonialism and into the future. This collection will be a story of survival, resilience, and hope; the story of Indigenous people across Turtle Island and the world.

Pat is a traditional knowledge keeper and one of the few remaining practitioners of this long-standing artform. Originally from Churchill, MB and a member of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in northern Saskatchewan.

Half Moon has always been an active community member, teaching art, volunteering, and creating programs to assist Indigenous communities in Canada. She currently resides in British Columbia. The exhibition, “Biting Back: Our Cultural Resilience,” runs at Wanuskewin Galleries in Saskatoon through October.