People can learn about the Métis culture and their well-known art at an event coming up at the Niagara Falls History Museum in November. They’ll also get a chance to try their hand at creating their own art.

Brian Kon of Niagara Falls, an internationally recognized visual artist who is chair of the Niagara Region Métis Council, will lead the "Awakening Métis Culture Through Art" presentation.

Kon is chair of the Niagara Region Métis Council and is Indigenous lead for the Niagara Catholic District School Board.

“The Métis were known as the ‘flower bead people’ (and) my art is intended to honour the skills and artistry of my ancestors by using traditional and historic bead patterns as the inspiration for my work,” Kon said in a news release.

The museum said Kon has participated in numerous shows across Ontario and a number of his pieces are currently on loan to various organizations and museums, highlighting issues that focus on Indigenous heritage, culture, and service.

Participants at the event on Saturday, Nov. 23 will get a hands-on experience of creating their own dot art painting based on the beadwork of the Métis.

The museum said floral beadwork has become one of the most distinctive Métis symbols.

Assistant museum curator Christine Girardi said the Métis developed beautiful beadwork patterns that combined First Nations beadwork with floral embroidered patterns that were introduced by French-Canadian nuns working in the Roman Catholic missions.

Beadwork was found on almost every item of traditional Métis clothing and functional hide and cloth work, said Girardi.

Dot art is a modern take on the traditional beadwork by Métis people, in which floral patterns are created using dots by dipping the end of a paintbrush — or the tip of a feather or knitting needle — into the paint and pressing it onto canvas. The effect is thousands of raised dots per canvas that simulate beadwork, said Girardi.