6690077201 DISCOVER HER Creative World

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Title: Truth Is First

Medium: Multimedia, Paper, Flat and Satin Acrylic Paint on Canvas

Created: 2021

Truth First is a large canvas that highlights the heartfelt testimonies of Residential School survivors and Calls To Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report (TRC). 

The TRC of Canada, established in 2008 as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, aimed to inform

Title: The Genocide Of The Haida

Medium: Acrylic Paint on US Currency

Created: 2024

This powerful series of images document the purposeful use of germ warfare against the Haida's.   The notorious Hudson's Bay blanket is featured, which were used to transmit the virus. 

Fond of combining unconventional materials, subject matter and composition, Ms. Bell's repurposing of dollar bills is a recurrent elem

Title: Trick Or Treaty

Medium: Ink on Toilet Paper

Created: 2023

‘Trick or Treaty’ emphasizes the blatant disrespect of the United States Government to uphold and honour any of the treaties it has signed with its Indigenous peoples.

Between 1778 and 1871, the US Government entered into over 500 treaties with American Indian nations. Ever since negotiating the treaties, they have been broken.  There 

Title: The Spirit Of Wealth

Medium: Acrylic On Canvas

Created: 2021

Within Haida tradition, wealth is a wide-ranging concept that includes traditions, familial connections and artistic traditions.  Included within the Potlatch system or Potlatch law, concepts of wealth included  the vast and robust distribution of culture and material possessions to all community members.  

Title: Welcome To Carlisle

Medium: Acrylic Paint and Pencil on US Currency 

Created: 2025

Award: 2nd Place At the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona

‘Welcome to Carlisle’ is a collection of haunting images of Indigenous child prisoners, painted over top of the portraits normally found on American currency. The deeply expressive, explosive and painful paintings are artistic impressions of testimonies fro

Title: Suffer The Children, Basket #1

Medium: Combines with Found and Gathered Objects, Acrylic Paint and Oil Pen. 

Created: 2023

For a period of more than 150 years, indigenous children were taken from their families and communities to attend schools which were often located far from their homes. More than 150,000 children attended Indian Residential Schools. Many never returned.

The abuse at schools

Title: I Dare You To Call It Genocide

Medium: Acrylic Paint on US Currency 

Created: 2023

Award: 2nd Place Heard Museum

 As a Haida traditionalist, Ms. Bell often heard stories of the purposeful use of biological weapons in the Pacific Northwest Coast. An oral account details how smallpox infected blankets were repackaged and given to local indigenous people as they were departing back to their commun

 Title:  Acting Indian

Medium: Ink on Toilet Paper

Created 2024

The Indian Act is a antiquated document that has debilitated Indigenous people since it's creation.  The Indian Act is a Canadian federal law, enacted in 1876, that governs the status of "Indians" (now referred to as First Nations), their bands, and the management of Indian reserves, with the goal of assimilation of Indigenous peoples in

Title:  Reconciled Bills

Medium: Acrylic Paint on American and Canadian Currency

Created 2023

This piece was created for a revolutionary exhibition posing the questions, 'What would Bill Reid think?  After the exhibition, Ms. Bell used some of the currency to purchase mundate items while shopping.  The circulation of the bills into the Canadian economic system is a way to subvert the conversation and

Following news that the bodies of 215 murdered children had been found on the grounds of a residential school in Kamloops, Ms. Bell was overwhelmed by grief and anger. And like most Canadians, she felt a deep sense of shock. Though she lacked the power to relieve the unbelievable heartbreak and pain the discovery produced, she felt she could do something to draw attention to the atrocity, promot

Ms. Bell aided in the production of the first-ever independent street mural in Vancouver. The mural, which read -- in part -- “Every Child Matters” (delivered in bright orange) was praised for its simple and restrained take on the Kamloops tragedy. 

Early the next morning, Ms. Bell and 15 volunteers added this mural to a busy part of Commercial Drive, maximizing its exposure and impact. 

Ms. Bell 

Tamara Bell, a seventh-generation Haida matriarch and inter-generational survivor of Canada’s residential school system is the artist behind the ceremony. Taking place this Wednesday, (Sept. 29) at the South Side of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Bell was inspired to organize the ceremony by Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.