Meet Camryn Growing Thunder

Camryn Ahhaitty Growing Thunder (Dakota/Nakoda/Kiowa/Comanche) is an award-winning queer artist from the Fort Peck Assiniboine/Sioux Tribes. Growing Thunder learned traditional beadwork and quillwork from her mother, Juanita, and grandmother, Joyce. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors in Studio Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts and is currently pursuing her MFA in CalArts-School of Art. Growing Thunder’s body of work combines traditional and contemporary practices to create Indigenous fashion accessories and multi-media paintings. She began building her career after winning Best of Classification: Youth Division at Santa Fe Indian Market in 2015 for her first contemporary parfleche handbag. Growing Thunder has since showcased her interdisciplinary work in group exhibitions like “The Armor We Wear” and “Rooted in Relation”. Her forthcoming work includes leading a Growing Thunder Collective collaboration with Manitoba footwear and a traveling family retrospective set to open at the Joslyn Museum of Art in Fall 2027.