Claire Heldman, Oyate Wankan Wiá (The People See Her Woman), is a member of the Lakota from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, and a long-time resident of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. She is the former President of the Native American Cultural Center in Akron, where she educated the public on contemporary Native American issues and assisted displaced Native Peoples in the area to find housing, transportation, education, and employment.
Claire creates contemporary Native American art, working primarily in drawing and painting. Her work incorporates found objects such as slate and driftwood, as well as materials that are significant to her heritage, including cow skulls, horsehair, and leather. Much of her work is visualized through meditation and prayer and is influenced by fellow Native American artists. Through her art, Claire says that she “endeavors to bridge cultures with the hope to bring a better understanding of individuality among all races.”
Her work has been exhibited extensively in Northeast Ohio, South Dakota, New Mexico, Colorado, Louisiana, and Florida, and hangs in the Governor’s Multicultural Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Claire was also named the 2004 Artist of the Year by the Ohio Arts Council.
In 2018, Akron City Council declared the first Monday in October as North American First People’s Day, a day to honor Native American history, life, and culture. Summit County Council extended the declaration to the entire county in 2019.
As stewards of Native American ethnographic collection materials, the Institute for Human Science and Culture (IHSC) aims to become a platform for local, national, and international contemporary Native American artists and individuals where they can tell their own stories, in their own voices. With that goal in mind, the IHSC partnered with the Portage Path Collaborative to be part of North American First People’s Day celebrations.
Lakota Wià is the inaugural local Native American artist exhibition associated with these celebrations and is dedicated to the memory of Delma Marie Heldman, Claire’s mother.