As part of the Salt Spring National Art Prize’s commitment to celebrating diverse practices and perspectives, we are honoured to present Beading as Belonging — Sowing Seeds with artist Natalie Rollins. This special hands-on beading demo and artist talk invites participants into a space where memory, land, and lineage meet in the making.

Natalie’s work embodies the SSNAP spirit: a celebration of Canadian voices, traditions, and contemporary expressions. In this session, audiences are invited to explore touchable materials, design in motion, and the storied practices of making passed down through generations. Rooted in teachings from her Kokum, Avalina Ashley, Natalie’s beadwork becomes a living thread of connection, weaving together her matrilineal lines of Northern Cree, Irish, Scottish, and English belonging.

Through this intimate act of creation, Natalie invites us into a dialogue about continuity, resilience, and remembrance. Each bead carries with it a story — of place, of family, of survival — offering a quiet but powerful reminder of how art can ground us in who we are and where we come from.

Within the SSNAP universe, Natalie’s practice highlights the importance of honouring Indigenous knowledge, intergenerational creativity, and the tactile presence of art in community spaces. By beading together memory and material, Beading as Belonging — Sowing Seeds reflects the deeper values of SSNAP: art as a bridge between past and present, tradition and innovation, individual and collective belonging.