Artists from the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin helped designed actress Lily Gladstone’s dress that she wore at the 96th Oscars Awards ceremony on Sunday.
Gladstone was nominated for best actress for her performance in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” She made history as the first Native American (Blackfeet) woman to be nominated for the award, though Emma Stone won the award for her performance in “Poor Things.”
Gladstone’s Oscars dress was described as a “powerful red carpet look” that paid tribute to her Indigenous heritage by Vogue magazine Sunday.
The midnight-blue velvet dress was a collaboration between Gucci creative director Sabato De Sarno and Indigenous artist Joe Big Mountain (Mohawk, Cree and Comanche) and his wife, Sunshine, Vogue said.
The Big Mountains recruited a team of artists from the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin to hand-quill the gown’s velvet cape with 216 quilled petals, the magazine reported.
The Oneida artists include Kendrick Powless-Crouch, Jossalyn Metoxen, Seven Oshkabewisens, Dionne Jacobs, Paige Skenandore and Aryien Stevens.
Several Oneida individuals and organizations have been congratulating the artists on social media, including officials with the Oneida Nation High School who praised their alums.
The Oneida Nation Arts Program touted the quillwork as a nearly lost Indigenous art form that’s being kept alive by master quill artists on the Oneida Reservation.
Quillwork has been practiced by Indigenous nations for hundreds of years and involves using porcupine quills to decorate leather clothing, moccasins and jewelry.
“Quillwork reflects the longest legacy of living craftsmanship in my corner of Indian Country,” Gladstone told Vogue. “It is hugely culturally significant to so many nations, Blackfeet included. I grew up gazing at quillwork in many forms; in our headdresses, our regalia. The first pair of earrings I ever bought myself were quillwork, made by Bob Tailfeathers from back home.”
Gladstone was nominated at the Oscars for her portrayal of Mollie Kyle in 2023’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” based on the true story about how the Osage people struck “black gold” on their reservation in Oklahoma only to have white fraudsters steal and murder for their riches.
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Frank Vaisvilas is a former Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Oneida artists from Wisconsin add to Lily Gladstone’s Oscars dress
