Métis Artist · Red River Lineage · Contemporary Beadwork Painting
Sherry Leigh Williams is a contemporary Métis artist, musician, and cultural leader whose work bridges ancestral memory, beadwork tradition, and contemporary painting. Drawing on her Red River Métis and Papaschase lineage, she creates richly layered works that honour story, land, kinship, and survival.
On View Now · ArtSpring, Salt Spring Island
The original acrylic paintings behind Papaashi Bufloo, on exhibition on Salt Spring Island.
June 3 – July 3, 2026 · Meet the Artist — Thursday, July 2
Plan your visitInstallation view · ArtSpring, Salt Spring Island
Debut Children's Book · 2026
The Buffalo Who Raced Horses
A beginner Southern Michif children's book, illustrated with original acrylic paintings. It tells the true story of Sherry's great-grandmother Mary Anne Deschamps Rabaska, born in 1875 near Pigeon Lake, Alberta — and a buffalo calf named Toneur (Thunder in Southern Michif) that she raised, who went on to race horses in a town race, and won.
The 32-page book introduces young readers to Southern Michif, the traditional language of the Métis people, with a Michif glossary and cultural pages on Métis beadwork and the Papaschase Cree. The Michif language content was verified by Elder Bruce Dumont, former President of Métis Nation BC, and reviewed by Métis Nation BC.
Book Launch
Sunday, June 21, 2026 — National Indigenous Peoples Day
1:00 PM · Farmers' Institute, Salt Spring Island
Free & open to the public, as part of Indigenous Peoples Weekend 2026
Finalist · 2025
Parallel Art Show Finalist
Sherry Leigh Williams was selected as a finalist in the 2025 Salt Spring National Art Prize, exhibiting her work Mother Heart as part of the Parallel Art Show. This work reflects her ongoing exploration of Métis visual language through contemporary form, material, and cultural narrative. This recognition marks a significant milestone in Williams' evolving body of work, rooted in Métis identity, land, and intergenerational memory.
Salt Spring National Art Prize — Parallel Art Show, Mahon Hall
Government of Canada
Featured Artist
Sherry Leigh Williams' work is featured in the Senator Boyer Métis Art Gallery, an online national platform dedicated to Métis artists and cultural expression. Commissioned by Senator Yvonne Boyer to create the official Government of Canada Christmas card for 2026, the artwork represents Métis floral beadwork tradition at the highest level of Canadian governance. This inclusion reflects the cultural significance of Williams' work and its contribution to contemporary Métis artistic practice.
View the collection →Parks Canada · Jasper National Park · 2021
Selected Métis Artist
Her Beaded Drum was selected for permanent large-scale display — reproduced as a 5-foot installation panel. She grew up 100 miles from Jasper. The Métis were forced from this land when the park was created. Her work returning to those walls is not an exhibition. It is a homecoming.
"My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them back their spirit."
Louis Riel
Artist
Sherry Leigh Williams is a Red River Métis and Papaschase First Nation artist based on Salt Spring Island, BC. Her practice is rooted in verified direct descent from the Deschamps dit Rabaska and Hénault dit Canada lineages — the Pullers of the Big Canoe — and 25 years of genealogical research into land, kinship, and cultural memory.
Working in acrylic one drop at a time, her paintings translate the circular precision of traditional Métis floral beadwork into contemporary form — layering the unnamed grandmothers' embroidery beneath her paint, honouring the women who shaped Métis culture.
Healing Through Art
Through Métis Nation BC, six healing drums now live in oncology centres across British Columbia — carrying ceremony into hospital spaces, bringing Indigenous art and cultural presence to patients and families.
Each drum carries ceremony. Each placement is an act of cultural presence in places that need it most.
Permanent Collections & Licensed Works
2026
2021
2023
2021–2022
2022
2018
2022
Ongoing
All works licensed. Artist retains copyright and intellectual property.
Leadership
Founder & President
Organized the first pan-Indigenous cultural event on Salt Spring Island, convening representatives from over 15 nations — including a ceremonial teepee raising with Elder Bruce Dumont. Two-time Susan Benson Award recipient for community arts leadership.
Sweetgrass creates space where art heals and community thrives.
Sound & Performance
Contralto, songwriter, and performing musician for over 30 years. Entertainment Coordinator for Royal Canadian Legion Branch 92 — organizing over 200 events. Weekly open mic host and curator of the bi-monthly house-concert series at Raven's Cache, Salt Spring Island.
Bands: Local Motion, Shades of Grey, Southbound & Friends (with world-renowned violinist Sari Alesh).
"Music builds community, and community heals people."
Explore music & performance →In Progress
A mother-daughter collaboration with Red River Raven — Métis floral beadwork exploring migration, memory, and matrilineal knowledge. Funded through the SSNAP Catalyst Grant and Wilding Foundation.
Exhibition at ArtSpring, Salt Spring Island — November 8–15, 2026
Land Acknowledgment
With respect and gratitude, I acknowledge that I live and create on the unceded and traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples — the Hul'qumi'num and SENCOŦEN speaking peoples.
As Métis, we are people of the in-between. This acknowledgment is not performative, but a daily practice of showing up, listening, and making space.
Get In Touch
Commissions
Available for healing arts commissions, institutional partnerships, and cultural projects.
Workshops
Beadwork and cultural art workshops for groups, schools, and community organizations.
Music
Available for community events, open mics, and cultural gatherings.
