The Gallery is located on traditional territories of the Siksikaitsitapii, or Blackfoot Confederacy. We honour and acknowledge the Siksikaitsitapi, who have cared for these lands since time immemorial. We recognize that Treaty 7 territory is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III, and many other Indigenous peoples.

A Blackfoot Naming Ceremony was held at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery on Friday, October 23, 2020. The ceremony was led by Elder Bruce Wolf Child and First Nations Education, Language & Cultural Consultant and Elder Mary Fox, and the Gallery was greatly honoured to receive the Blackfoot name MAANSIKSIKAITSITAPIITSINIKSSIN.
 
The Gallery’s Board of Directors and Staff were extremely grateful that the Gallery was gifted with a Blackfoot name by local Kainai Elders, and we are committed to our journey of living into this name. We are honoured to share the Blackfoot name and its meaning with our community.

MAANSIKSIKAITSITAPIITSINIKSSIN:  the new making of images, related to the telling of our Blackfoot peoples’ stories.
 
MAANSIKSIKAITSITAPIITSINIKSSIN describes contemporary art as the new process of making images and writings, related to the telling of ancient stories by Blackfoot people within Blackfoot territory: a continuation across time in the sharing of knowledge, culture, and history across southern Alberta. 
 
MAANSIKSIKAITSITAPIITSINIKSSIN connects the Blackfoot language words: maan it is new, siksikaitsitapii (of) our Blackfoot people, tsinikssin relating stories through the process of images and writings.

MAANSIKSIKAITSITAPIITSINIKSSIN is pronounced maa nee gae da bee se naa gsenn. Listen to an audio recording of First Nations Education, Language & Cultural Consultant and Elder Mary Fox speaking the Blackfoot name below.

On occasion of receiving Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin, the Blackfoot name for the Gallery, on October 23, 2020, local Kainai artist Bryce Singer was commissioned to create a limited series of commemorative artwork prints.