TANSI, ALEXA LIZOTTE NITISIYIHKÂSON.
Hi, my name is Alexa Lizotte and I am a proud urban and mixed Métis woman. I am Métis on my father's side and white settler on my mother's side. My Métis community is North Vermilion Settlement (Buttertown) / Fort Vermilion, where my father was born and raised, and my white settler ancestry is German and general settler-English ancestry on my mother's side. Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton) is currently home.
I grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, creating an inaccessible relationship to the territory that has provided many generations before me with life. My father left his community as a young man for the opportunity of a trip to Iowa with his sister and brother-in-law, and with the help of the Jay treaty, he stayed and later settled in Las Vegas, Nevada, my mother's place of birth. Far removed from Northern Alberta, my absence of land teachings and being near kin led to teenage and young adult years of apathy, rage, and bitterness towards the world around me.
My time spent home in Northern Alberta from 2020-2022 revolved around rebuilding my relationship with the land and has offered a stillness I was unfamiliar with for so long. The Peace River, Northern Alberta's original highway, has been important to me, and my artwork and teaching opportunities give me the medium to tell this story. Louis Riel said, "My people will sleep for 100 years, but it will be art that gives them their spirit back" and this is what art has done for me.
Hay Hay for reading my story, and niwakomakanak to you. I look forward to hearing your story too.
[Thank you, and all my relations.]