The Moon Circles of shelkem: shíshálh Women's Use of Aesthetic Production as Place-Making

In collaboration with three generations of shíshálh women, this thesis records this important cultural site, illustrating how shíshálh women create Place through aesthetic production and how such Places, used for their puberty rites, continue to be formative in shaping the identities of contemporary shíshálh women. This thesis adds to the growing body of literature which rectifies the absence of Indigenous women's culture and history within archaeological and ethnographic narratives by acknowledging Salish women's place-based aesthetic traditions. This study of the Moon Circles highlights the role of aesthetic production in shíshálh women's identities, the connection between Place, Salish women's puberty traditions, and their 'art'. In doing so, this research underscores the necessity of redefining dominant perspectives on Indigenous women's 'material culture', art, and ritual.