Conversation pieces from the fire
- Some of Nancy's pottery incorporates basketry and beadwork
- Through art, she works to revive elements of Mi'kmaq culture
- Her work was shown at the 2025 Collect Art Fair in London
Nancy Oakley is a Mi’kmaq and Wampanoag artist based in Eskasoni, Nova Scotia. A long-time potter, she has also studied photography at the Institute of American Indian Arts and learned several traditional crafts from her family. Her pieces’ surprising combinations speak to this multidisciplinary background and cultural heritage. "In 2019, I could not find anyone making traditional Mi’kmaq pottery on Canada’s East Coast,” she explains. "I felt compelled to help resurrect this ancestral craft." To achieve this, Nancy sought out the guidance of Richard Zane Smith and KC Adams. In archaeology records, traditional Mi’kmaq pottery was last found about 500 years ago, which presented various questions and challenges. Nancy works to address these in dialogue with craftspeople across Turtle Island and beyond.
Interview
- How did you learn your craft?
- Early on, I took pottery classes at the IAIA down in Santa Fe. Later, I took a few more classes at NSCAD. For the most part, I am self-taught. More recently, I went down to Oklahoma to learn traditional pottery and cooking pots with Richard Zane Smith.
- Do you work with a potter’s wheel?
- Only for the smaller pieces that I wholesale. I do not create anything over 2lbs/1kg on my wheel. My traditional pieces have nothing to do with anything modern. I process clay by hand and hand build. There is no kiln involved as I carry out outdoor firing.
- Is it important for you to use local materials?
- In my traditional work, I use local clay. I also like to pick up materials from places I visit when I travel, and use them in my pieces in a meaningful way. A few years ago, I got some clay from Scotland. I have some temper from Cape Cod and Arizona, and I have some ochre that a friend gave me from Newfoundland.
- Why do many of your pieces incorporate sweetgrass?
- As a basket maker, I learned to finish off my pieces by trimming them with sweetgrass. When I switched over to ceramics, I wanted to bring that element of traditional basketry into my pottery, as a little piece of spirituality that someone can take home.
Nancy Oakley is an expert artisan: she began her career in 1989
