Christi Belcourt was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada and is the daughter of Judith Pierce Martin and Tony Belcourt, a Canadian Métis rights activist. The Belcourt family traces its roots to Manitow Sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne), Alberta, Canada. C. Belcourt did not pursue formal art training in a university setting, but developed her artistic skills after reconnecting with her Indigenous heritage as a young adult. She became particularly fascinated with First Nations’ beadwork and has since replicated their intricate patterns with acrylic on canvas. Throughout her career, C. Belcourt has intertwined her art and activism by crafting works that depict Indigenous perceptions of land and other-than-human life forms.
C. Belcourt is best known for her large-scale paintings, but she has also worked in other mediums, including stained glass and digital art projects. She began showing her artworks in exhibitions starting in the early 2000s. One of her most well-known pieces is a monumental painting, The Wisdom of the Universe (2014), which depicts over two hundred plants and animals that are considered endangered or extinct in Ontario. In this work, C. Belcourt utilised a pointillist style of painting on a dark background with a symmetrical composition to resemble traditional Métis beadwork. The rich texture of the painting resembles the embroidery works of her ancestors. The picture honours the beauty of the natural world but also reminds viewers of what we have lost or what we are in danger of losing completely. All C. Belcourt’s paintings of nature depict the roots of plants. She thus asserts the interconnectedness of all living beings with the earth.

In addition to her paintings, C. Belcourt has also created permanent public art installations and organised activist art projects. In 2012, she created a stained-glass window for Canada’s Parliament building to commemorate the memories of Indigenous students and communities who were forced to endure Canada’s Indian Residential Schools. Also in 2012, she helped launch the Walking With Our Sisters collective, which organised Indigenous-led exhibitions throughout North America that honoured the lives of Indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing. In 2014, C. Belcourt, Isaac Murdoch and Erin Konsmo created The Onaman Collective, which designs free digital artworks for water, land and animal protectors to use in protests throughout North America.

C. Belcourt is one of the most prominent Indigenous artists and activists in Canada, and her works are included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Along with national and international solo and group exhibitions, she has also been included in ground-breaking exhibitions such as Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artist (2019), Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota.