Bio and Statement
Elise Bill-Gerrish is a Muckleshoot Tribal Member and Muckleshoot Language Caretaker. She recently earned her Masters in Education from the University of Washington Tacoma where she focused on best practices for Native and Indigenous students. Elise is a committed advocate for healing Native pathways, traditional plant medicine & food systems, Southern Lushootseed revitalization, and Native education. She is currently a professor of American Indian Studies at South Seattle College and owns her own consulting business.
As a multimedia artist, Elise enjoys mediums such as weaving, painting, film production, digital designs, drum making, and collage. Elise has been primarily focusing her artistic energy on Coast Salish wool weaving. She comes from a strong lineage of weavers like her grandmothers, Annie Jack and Julia Siddle. In her work, Elise feels connected to her ancestors and believes her efforts are helping heal intergenerational trauma in her and her families’ lives. By reconnecting to ancestral skills, she endeavors to teach her children, and one day grandchildren, how to speak their traditional language, cultural practices, and have a strong sense of belonging.