Created by
Ameena Buchanan,
Fellow, Caring Cultures 2025
Published
February 6, 2026
Exploring Indigenous care, identity, and cultural revival, blending traditional tattooing, symbolism, and intergenerational stories to highlight healing, joy, and shared sense of belonging.
This painting showcases a culture of care through Indigenous identity, expressed in the form of traditional tattooing.
It uses vibrant colours to visually embody Indigenous joy within the spirit and culture. With a blend of Kakiniit face markings and Ojibwe florals, medicine wheel colours are intertwined throughout the designs.
Tattooing is a form of good medicine and can be essential in reviving cultural roots. The art of tattooing was one of colonization’s casualties. In the present day, the revival of this practice can be seen as a form of reconnection to cultural wisdom. When we see these markings, we know that healing has occurred.
In this digital painting, these markings are depicted on the faces of the young and old, serving as a reminder of all our relations — the women who have walked before us and those who will walk after us. The women on the left and right bear more traditional Indigenous features, while the woman in the middle, who embodies joy herself, has red hair.
This serves to remind us that regardless of our bloodlines, whether we are mixed or not, we have an inherited right and deep-rooted belonging to our Indigenous history.
© Ameena Buchanan, 2025.
All texts and artwork are published with the permission of the artist. The creation and publication of this work was made possible with the support of Canada Council for the Arts, Government of Canada, Ontario Arts Council, and Government of Ontario.