Shane Perley-Dutcher

Shane Perley-Dutcher: Shane Perley-Dutcher is a Wolastoq mixed media artist from the Neqotkuk Wolasqiyik (Tobique First Nation) in New Brunswick. He trained at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, earning a Diploma in Natives Art Studies and Jewellery Manufacturing. Shane draws his design inspiration from Wolastoqiyik traditional knowledge and contemporary aesthetics. Shane uses natural materials such as birch, cedar, spruce, ash, copper, silver, gold and platinum to create unique lines of jewelry and one-of-a-kind sculptures.  Shane gathers his traditional materials for his art because it maintains his connection to the land, and entails an important part of his creative journey.

Perley-Dutcher and fellow resident Anna Tsouhlarakis  have also been commissioned to produce a permanent sculpture on the grounds of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (CMBG), and will be unveiled during our second symposia entitled, Deconstructing the Boundaries: The Land Fights Back. (Deconstructing the Boundaries is a monumental multi-year partnership between Indigo Arts Alliance and CMBG supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation). As the first of its kind at the Gardens, this program brings together community members of all backgrounds to ground ourselves in difficult conversations, creative expression and the power of being together. In 2023 the partnership kicked off with a one-day symposium, Deconstructing the Boundaries: A Future of Land and Food Resilience, which included a panel discussion and breakout sessions facilitated by scholars, artists, activists, and educators to explore the relationships between land stewardship, ethical resource usage and sharing nourishment; all in order to examine how we offer and create modes of being that exist outside of dominant normative U.S. cultural practices.