Ets’ehch’I; Traditional Dene Burial Practices | Antoine Mountain

“We call it Feeding the Fire,” Uncle quietly offers…
The Mountain Dene are naturally of a world apart, in its way separate from our usual worldly cares and woes.
To keep it alive is an education in itself. – Antoine Mountain

“Ets’ehch’I; Traditional Dene Burial Practices” is comprised of twenty-one paintings by Dene artist, Antoine Mountain, that share depictions taken from stories, beliefs, and traditions as an epistemological tool of Dene resurgence.

Antoine Mountain is Dene, North American First Nations, originally from Radelie Koe/Fort Good Hope, of the Dene Nation, in northern Canada. His hometown is just a few miles from the Arctic Circle. In addition to his writing and scholarship, Mountain is a painter primarily working in acrylics across a number of styles with Impressionist influence. The colours of the North and deep-rooted spiritualism inform his approach to depicting landscape, portraits, and figurative scenes.