Lisa Shepherd was born and raised in Alberta, her father being of ²Ñé³Ù¾±²õ ancestry and her mother of Italian ancestry. She is now based in the Lower Mainland of BC, and she is grateful to the Katzie and Kwantlen First Nations who have cared for the land where she lives and works, their traditional unceded shared territory, since time immemorial.
Lisa’s business started in 2008, when she began making moccasins for friends and family. Her background in clothing design led her to create authentic ²Ñé³Ù¾±²õ garments featuring her gorgeous beadwork. She was soon recognized by various community organizations as a ²Ñé³Ù¾±²õ art and cultural expert, and became a sought-after teacher of beading, moccasin making, fish scale art, and traditional ecological knowledge, including plant medicine.
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Lisa fondly recalls visiting her grandparents, where the budding artist was given small stacks of fabric, a needle and thread, some paper and pencil crayons. These gifts inspired many happy hours designing, sewing and forming her interest in textile arts. It came as no surprise to her family and friends when Lisa garnered an art bursary and moved to the west coast to study apparel design.
Today, the designer is best known for her one-of-a-kind beaded garments that pay tribute to her ²Ñé³Ù¾±²õ roots. The ²Ñé³Ù¾±²õ, after all, are often referred to as the Flower Beadwork People. Lisa’s contemporary studies of native plants and her exploration of the padula flowers in ancestral works land thoughtfully by way of beads on velveteen, stroud and smokey hide. She works with a meticulousness that can only come from an artist’s desire to unearth an almost lost history, bring it into the present and explain it to a searching generation.
Throughout the past decade, Lisa’s business has shifted from primarily making physical items to specializing in sharing cultural knowledge, advocating for ²Ñé³Ù¾±²õ visibility, and cultivating meaningful relationships throughout her community.
Lisa is regularly asked to collaborate with other Indigenous artists on prominent projects and commissions, each representing the ²Ñé³Ù¾±²õ people and culture. And she now has several significant art pieces featured in public spaces throughout the country and abroad, including in Parks Canada, Royal Ontario Museum, Royal Alberta Museum, Jasper Yellowhead Museum and Archives, Gabriel Dumont Museum and Archives and the National Music Centre, Fort Langley National Historic Site, Edmonton Public Library, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (USA), and Museum Natur und Mensch (Germany). See the  for a list of public places you can see Lisa’s work.
From simple beginnings as a child with needle and thread and then later creating beaded moccasins for loved ones, to being involved in high-profile heritage projects uplifting ²Ñé³Ù¾±²õ artwork and culture and being featured in Canadian and international artwork exhibits, Lisa’s reputation as knowledge holder and advocate for the ²Ñé³Ù¾±²õ people continues to grow. You can find her knowledge and artwork featured in various cultural and academic publications across Canada, including for ²Ñé³Ù¾±²õ Nation BC, Parks Canada, CBC, and the University of Manitoba, with more set to come out in the near future. See the for many of the ways Lisa’s work has recently been featured or recognized.