Portrait of Nickole and Paula Keith
Photo by NHBP Tribal Member Johnathon Moulds
2021

A photograph of Nickole Keith (left), and her mother, Paula Keith (right) standing side by side, directly gazing at the camera. Nickole has short, black hair and bangs, medium brown skin, and is wearing beaded earrings. Paula has long grey hair and light brown skin. Both women are wearing black MMIW t-shirts and ribbon skirts. Nickole’s ribbon skirt is a gradient of purple to blue to green. Paula’s is black with red and orange ribbons. Nickole holds a braided ring of sweetgrass. Paula holds a black ash basket.

Nickole Keith
374 Broken Promises
4’x4′
Acrylic on birchwood
2025

374 Broken Promises is a 4’x4’ acrylic abstract painting on birchwood created in 2025. It displays swirling patterns in shades of red, orange, yellow, purple,  blue, and black in the background intersected by black marks resembling small X’s spanning across the entire canvas. The red, orange, yellow mimics the Fire which in the Potawatomi culture means they  are the “Keepers of the Fire” despite being moved out West their  fire still burns. The X’s are symbolic of the signatures across Turtle Island where they [X’s] represent signatures of all tribes 374 signatures and no treaties honored. The painting has a dynamic, almost whirlwind effect. The colors blend together to create a sense of movement, and the repeated black marks add texture and depth to the composition. 

Nickole Keith
Nnoshé
4’x4’ 
Acrylic on birchwood 
2019

Nnoshé is a 4’x4’ mixed medium piece of acrylic painting and beads on birchwood created in 2019. The artwork is divided into several horizontal sections. Three quarters of the painting has colors of black, purple/pink, bronze, and grayish-black color strokes that are rough in texture, almost like a fork that was dipped in paint and dragged in various directions along the birchwood. The grayish-black stripes represent forms of bondage materials. These colors serve as a background to another section in the upper portion of the painting. This section, in the middle of the background, features a portrait of a deceased brown Native woman (from the chin up) with long black hair behind various blades of grass whose physical body has begun to return to Mother earth. She is a foreground to a blue and white sky that is marked with 10 red handprints. The handprints represent the statistics that Anishinabe women face murder rates more than 10 times the national average. The other quarter of the painting is separated by three strips. The first, which disrupts the black and colored background, is a thin strip filled with small gold & silver beads and white pearls. The gold-pearl gems mimic the sunset and offers hope that those that are still missing will be rescued alive. Underneath is a little thicker black strip with the gray-ish black rough strokes again. Finally, the bottom strip extending to the end of the birchwood displays blue colors with white highlights and crystals on top, giving a sense of movement. The blue and shining crystals symbolize water which we all have a connection and return to.