To explore the diverse ways this art can be understood, the Glenbow Museum invited Aboriginal elders, leaders and artists to share their perspectives with non-Native museum staff. The resulting dialogue highlights the complexity of Aboriginal art from the northern plains to the subarctic regions of Canada.

Links to tradition, history and culture can be seen in artwork both old and new. From a lavishly beaded mossbag made in the 1890s, to a work created in 2006 by chiseling, drilling, sanding and assembling circuit boards, the artwork in Honouring Tradition celebrates the richness and complexity of the ongoing stories of the Indigenous people in this region.

These artists, whether traditional or contemporary, honour the importance of community, the connection to land and place and the tradition of storytelling.

The Glenbow Museum has an established reputation for books that accompany their exhibits with aboriginal content in conjunction with native peoples.

Beth Carter's profile page

Quyen Hoang's profile page

Gerald T. Conaty was the director of Indigenous studies at the Glenbow Museum. He leaves as his legacy more than thirty articles and books, including Power Images: Portrayals of Native America, co-authored with Sarah E. Boehme. In 2003, he was inducted into the Kainai Chieftainship and given the name Sikapiistamix (Grey Bull).

Gerald T. Conaty's profile page