The holidays are here and that means spending time with loved ones, eating as much food as possible, and enjoying the lights and the grandeur that this time of year brings.
But one of the most important things at this time of year is gifts. It can range from the latest technology or even luxury makeup and bags.
But for beadwork or a pair of handmade moccasins, it would be great.
Handcrafted items from the artists of First Nation are something many know and admire, but they are also items that non-Genuine people may be apprehensive about buying.
CBC Thunder Bay spoke with three artists from First Nation about their views on some best practices when buying from First Nations artists year-round, including the holiday season.
Kathleen Saudo, from Sister Bear Designs
Kathleen Saudo of Sister Bear Designs, a family-owned business with a storefront in Goods and Co. Market in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
It’s a family business, with items in its store like jewelry, mugs, kokum scarves, and even dried bison.
Sudou said her journey to get where she is now began as a child, learning from her grandparents how to make things. She was allowed to touch the beads and play with them carefully, then slowly she was allowed to start making things.
“We had to get to a certain level of beading before she would allow us to try making earrings. So we always started with chains of daisies and we had to make sure we caught our eye. [to detail] the correct.”
I advanced from there, to the point where there is now a business storefront.
Sudou says it was a big decision to launch at Goods & Co after craft shows and success secrets were held, but Sudou and her family decided to give it a try.
Even though the trip to their storefront was great, they still got questions about the prices of their products.
What Sawdo wants people to know about the work they do, is that a lot of time and work goes into making a handmade product, whether it be beaded earrings or a lanyard.
“If you’re doing a peyote rope stitch, you can be really fast, but that’s going to take a few days. At a minimum, for us, it usually takes a full week to make it, and if you do it well,” Sudou said.
“However, they still want it for $60. Working a week for $60 is not a sustainable way,” she said.
Sudou says if she’s having a bad day or if something happens, she’ll stop working on that piece until she feels better because they don’t want that energy to be in her, which can also affect schedules and deadlines.
When it comes to questions she receives from non-authentic people about buying her work for themselves, Sudou said she assures that it is authentically made and that it’s OK to buy it.
“I had some people who weren’t sure [and asked] “May I wear this?” I said it’s jewelry, it’s made to be beautiful. And if you’re not a native, it’s okay to wear it. You can.”
Joshua Leclerc, two-soul woodland style illustrator and artist
For as long as Joshua Leclerc can remember, he has been working with his hands. With his grandmother and mother, Leclerc worked on crafts and arts as often as they could.
Creating forest-style paintings, he has created other items such as birch bark canoes and Christmas ornaments. He says some might call it a business, but he doesn’t really see it that way because he’s been doing it for so long.
In LeClair’s work, he says that any item he makes tend to include a piece of it in the item.
“It’s so much more than just drawing, but it also speaks to your soul which is included in everything you make,” said LeClair.
Like Sawdo, LeClair said when people buy Aboriginal art they get a piece of their soul from whatever item is made. Because of that, he says, the treatment of purchasing these items is different from that of a supermarket.
“You support a way of life. You even support a 3,000-year-old worldview and 2021 in 2022, that old, old way still exists. Sure we live in this modern way of life, but these are very things Claire told me:
Kathy Rodger, a teacher at Fort William First Nation and a traditional dressmaker
When Kathy Rodger was a little girl, she remembers that her grandmother had a shop on the mountain where she sold gloves, boots, and moccasins. She remembers seeing her grandmother making her income, and she said she was always in awe of what her grandmother would make.
Roger said, “When I entered her house, the first thing she snorted about was hiding. I thought she was cool, she could make absolutely anything, that way she made all her money.”
“But I was in awe of her ability to hunt animals, that she could prepare them and what she could make with her hands.”
When Rodger got her first teaching job, she moved to Nunavut, and she said she was desperate to learn how to make handmade clothes and other items as they did in the North, so she did.
From learning the different ways of preparing the North and South hiding and actually going out and getting the animal herself for her work, Rodger has become an expert when it comes to working with wild material.
When it comes to what people should know when buying Indigenous, she says the most important thing is to talk to the artist and learn more about her and what they used to make of the item. She also feels that women’s work is often undervalued, and that people understand the work that leads to the creation of beautiful items.
“Not only do they get less than minimum wage, they literally make dollars an hour. And any professional artist who has no other job to supplement their life, they don’t get benefits, they don’t get paid in,” Rodger said.
“I feel like you have to consider that when someone picks something up and says, ‘Well, that’s very expensive.'”
And for non-native folks who might be apprehensive, Rodger said please buy these items.
“If someone is producing something. And they sell it. This is an expression of their creativity, and it comes from their soul. You honor this artist and his work by buying it.”
Where do you buy it?
Not many of these handmade items are available at big box stores like Wal-Mart or Michaels craft stores.
Many artists sell their work at fence shops or at craft sales, just like the Aboriginal Fine Arts and Crafts sale held in Thunder Bay in November.
Social media is another place where artists sell their work, and LeClair even mentions a Facebook page called Thunder Bay and Area Indigenous Virtual Market where artists will post their work for sale.
Other places, such as Sister Bear Designs, will have their own website where they sell their items.