Why I Bead
My name is Meg, and I am the maker behind the artistic brand Nelie G. Mae. My connection with my maternal lineage is the heart of my beadwork, and I am a proud citizen of Red Lake Nation. I share my middle name (Elaine) with my mother and grandmother, and the name “Nelie G. Mae” is an anagram of my first and middle names.
Working with needle and thread is a powerful practice of cultural reclamation and healing, and I am so deeply grateful to have the ability to bead. My grandma gave me my first pair of porcupine quill earrings and a matching necklace when I was little, and she was a professional seamstress.
While my Ojibwe heritage is what grounds my beadwork, my artistic lens expands into the many layers of who I am and where I come from - I also have mixed European ancestry, primarily from Germany. I value acknowledging the layers of privilege, pain, and healing surrounding my intersectional life experiences. My art practice is a way of visualizing hope within personal, familial, and communal pain.
Beadwork is a practice that teaches me the ways my life is woven together with my relatives. I am grateful to bead in community when I can, and work with the Dyani White Hawk (Sicangu Lakota) studio team, and have also been fortunate to work with Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe)’s studio team.
Miigwech (thank you) for being here!
♥︎ Meg Elaine O’Sheaheimer (she/they)
photo below taken by my sister, Jane Veitenheimer
