![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Illumination-photo-adam-marsh-e1523042991499.jpg\")
<\/a>Briere uses art, in part, to tell her story: everything from cultural struggles to personal struggles, such as the death of her brother in 2015, after which she fell into a depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy story is\u2014like many indigenous people today\u2014overcoming the effects of colonization, the effects of trauma, the effects of loss through trauma and colonization,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Briere’s indigenous artist in residence exhibition at the college is titled Illumination<\/em>; she says the name highlights the hope and change that\u2019s possible both personally and culturally. She adds that the college has made good changes in regard to reconciliation.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re really supportive. I\u2019ve been really happy in my residency. The staff members of the department are always checking in with me on their own time and they do a lot of work for students,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s been really beneficial to my growth as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n Briere turned to art while struggling with her brother’s death and ended up finding her way through it.<\/p>\n \u201cI had no idea what I was going to do with myself after that, and it ended up being art,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t even call myself an ‘artist’ at that point. I had one person in that timeframe commission me for art pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n Briere calls her brother passing away \u201cthe climax of the hardship\u201d and since then she has come into her own more as an artist, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been really progressing in ways that I wasn\u2019t anticipating, but now I\u2019m really building on it consciously,\u201d she says. \u201cIn the beginning period of the grief I definitely just sunk into art everyday.\u201d<\/p>\n