Tammie Dupuis, Salmon Run, 2025, Watercolor and relief print, 18 x 24 in

Tammie Dupuis's practice blends Indigenous and non-Indigenous methods, materials, and meanings. As a child of the reservation, she centers her Indigenous voice-historically silenced-while acknowledging her non-Indigenous ancestry. This dual awareness informs work across painting, sculpture, printmaking, installation, and weaving, bringing Indigenous and Euro-Western approaches into dialogue without diminishing either tradition. In her paintings, she combines Euro-Western techniques with Indigenous pigments to express Indigenous thought; in sculpture, she uses contemporary materials to explore Indigenous metaphor.

For her ancestors, pigment functioned as spiritual technology-connecting maker to the unseen, recording visions, and offering protection and healing. Dupuis carries these teachings forward, engaging color theory as a site of resonance between traditions. Her work operates on spiritual, formal, and historical levels while examining Indigenous presence in gallery spaces and the layered histories of this continent. Rooted in Gerald Vizenor's concept of "survivance," her art affirms endurance, cultural continuity, and memory beyond narratives of victimhood.