As a writer and Woodland artist expressing himself through jewelry making and works of fine art, Zhaawano Giizhik explores and conveys the inner meaning of the life forms that surround us, which means that his work reflects the reciprocal relationships between humans, the spirits, the supernatural, the plant world, and animals.

​

​Zhaawano’s works of art are essentially storytelling mediums. The underlying motivation is always to translate his ancestors’ worldview into original jewelry designs and graphic art that can be universally appreciated. To him, the use of precious metals and stones and line drawings is just another evolution of how he can relate the ancient stories that have been passed on to many generations before him.

​

​Sometimes the graphic, hieroglyphic-like line drawings he produces when creating his overlay jewelry and paintings are drawn from personal dreams, and sometimes they express moods and feelings from his life; however, no matter how you look at it, all of his work owes a great deal, and is deeply indebted, to Ojibwe mazinaajimowinan: the mysterious picture drawings his distant Anishinaabe ancestors depicted on river and lake bank cliffs and in birch bark scrolls.

​

​Geget, Zhaawano's storytelling through word and image results from, and humbly aims at reflecting, the deep kinship he feels with the land his ancestors once walked on and the culture and language they fostered.

 

Biindigen, welcome to this website, which is essentially a modern, digital storytelling Lodge. Come in and see for yourself how deeply the countless teachings and stories that you will find in here are rooted in Anishinaabe Aki - this ancestral land of boreal forests and freshwater lakes that Zhaawano's ancestors called home.