How Do We Listen to The Heart, Lucy Lindell

An intricate piece of Indigenous beadwork is displayed on a dark grey felt background. At the center is a beaded stethoscope rendered in shades of light blue, white, and dark blue. Surrounding and intertwined with the stethoscope are vibrant red strawberries with bright green leaves, carefully crafted from glossy beads. White floral designs with yellow centers and red outlines are scattered throughout the composition, along with smaller white blossoms that create a delicate, flowing border around the piece. Beaded vines and strands weave across the artwork, connecting the strawberries and flowers.

Title: How Do We Listen to The Heart

Artist: Lucy Lindell
Date: 2025/2026

Medium/Materials: Felt, embroidery, beads
Dimensions: 20.32 cm x 25.4 cm
Form/Genre: Beadwork

Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Heart; Stethoscope; Identity; Decolonial; Indigenous ways of knowing, Medical racism 

Artist Statement:

This is the first piece in my series, How Do We Listen To The Heart and this beaded piece has the same name. With over 150 hours of freehand beadwork, we see two strands of strawberries over a stethoscope. This piece considers how we heal and the influences within the possibilities of healing. It considers medical racism, human testing, healing through ceremony and traditional ways, and the journey to listening to our hearts.

In many Indigenous cultures, strawberries are known as heart medicine, and they help us throughout many ceremonies. To get to the point where we help others heal in ceremony through our gifts from Creator, we must listen to our heart. The ability and knowledge to do so have been severed by colonialism and genocide, and sadly, these same areas have helped to grow medical knowledge, and I believe that the energy of the harms through the origins of this knowledge still lives on and needs to be cared for by many people in many ways.

How Do We Listen to the Heart is a freehand beadwork creation in progress of a stethoscope. Strawberries, traditionally known as heart medicine, will be added to this piece along with strawberry florals. 

Lucy Lindell’s beadwork is spirit-led, just like traditional doctoring ceremonies that were once banned by the Canadian government and that are now often romanticized or not believed in which further invalidates the truths of traditional Indigenous identities. 

Here, there are layers of knowledge and memory; the playfulness of a child playing doctor; textures that remind us that life is not one way; strawberries to remind us that there is help all around us and offerings to share; questions of how we listen and are heard; and more. 

One side questions how the patient is treated, another poses the question of those in power in our healthcare systems, how they listen to their heart, and the journey between what they are able to hear and what is actually true. It shares that not every experience is the same and that as long as colonial ways continue to be a comfort for some, the truth of listening to one's heart will not be clear. 

Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:

Lindell first beaded a stethoscope as a joke for someone receiving an honorary doctorate, who doctors people in ceremony. Next, she beaded a small stethoscope to share about creating art, listening to the heArt, and what it may be like for 2-spirit people. She started this piece in November 2025 with a knowing within her that she needed to pose the question of how do we listen to the heart. 

Rights for this Image:

This digital image is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to share it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the artist.

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Instagram: @dotter_of_the_earth