Notice Board

Art NOW series featuring Blair Many Fingers & Walker English
November 24 | Noon | University Recital Hall
Free admission, everyone welcome

We are excited to be collaborating with the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery and the Niitsitapi Pod of the Abundant Intelligences research program, on this artist talk. Abundant Memory, Relational Intelligence is on view in the Dr. Margaret (Marmie) Perkins Hess Gallery until January 23, 2026.

Blair Many Fingers, whose Blackfoot name is Sisi’ksi, is a graduate student in the MA (Cultural, Social, and Political Thought) program and a Researcher-in-Residence with the Niitsitapii Pod. His thesis research examines how Heritage Resource Management operates at Áísínai’pi/Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park, which sacred landscape which holds the highest concentration of sináákssiistsi (petroglyphs and pictographs) depicted in the North American plains. His work with the pod unsettles dominant Náápia’pii iitáíssksinima’tstohkio’p/’White-People’s academic cultural paradigms’ with a Blackfoot-centric research paradigm, which is metaphorically represented in the framework of the niitóyis/tipi lodge. This non-A.I. visual offers understandings of Blackfoot ontology, epistemology, axiology, niitsipowahsin/language, and methodology. The niitóyis framework is intended to aesthetically represent Blackfoot research sovereignty by asserting a right on how Blackfoot data/knowledge is generated, represented, and shared. Many Fingers is a firm believer in bringing ‘rebellious-harmony’ into research by adhering to research principles grounded in relevance, reciprocity, respect, and reverence with methods that centre community, protocols, values, and prayer. Blair’s research interests include storytelling, place-based knowledge, Real People literature, Blackfoot research methodology, and ‘Our Way of Life’ – Kípaitápiiyssinnooni. Sisiksi is known to unsettle the settled with a fearless spirit/iiyikitapiiyi and connect with a kind heart – Kimmapiipittssinni.

Image courtesy of the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery.