Sabrina Williams is grateful to both her grandmothers, whom she affectionately calls Kokum (Cree for grandmother). They not only taught her the beadwork and sewing that gives her a meaningful vocation, they instilled a love of tradition she passes along to her daughter today.

But the knowledge the Edmonton artisan learned didn’t come without a dark side, as her parents were residential school survivors who became disconnected from their people’s ways.

“My parents lost most of their Indigenous identities and traditions. They are now coming back to the red road of healing and reconnecting,” said Williams, whose roots are Cree, Tahltan and Tlingit. “I was so thankful they let me make such a beautiful connection with my kokums, who taught me what my parents lost.”

Sabrina and her daughter Shelby, 12, are members of the Indigenous Arts Market Collective (I.A.M. Collective), an Edmonton organization of First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists. Members not only offer locally made Indigenous art and handcrafted items, they embody a spirit of entrepreneurship while sharing their culture with the world.

“We started in 2018, to break down barriers that were preventing Indigenous artists from participating in Edmonton’s local markets,” said Lorrie Lawrence, I.A.M. executive director and a founding member.

“We want to get as many youths to work in these traditional arts as possible. The elders who carry on with these traditions, it’s important for us to make sure they’re heard by the youth.”

Williams was taught skills such as quilt making and ribbon skirts by her kokum at Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, and learned beadwork, sweetgrass weaving and traditional medicine from her kokum in northern Saskatchewan.

“She taught me since I was six. Thirty-three years later I’m still embracing my matriarchs, my kokums’ sacred knowledge. And I am proud I am able to teach my daughter,” said Williams about daughter Shelby, who got an eye for acrylic painting and drawing after learning beadwork at age eight.

“She created the design for our orange shirt which was inspired by her grandparents, who attended residential schools. She also created MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) artwork, which was unfortunately inspired by the murder of my younger sister.”

Williams and Shelby now make a range of items, from quilts and handbags to Cree regalia and cedar hats, along with soaps, lotions and medicine oils using sage, sweetgrass and red cedar.

Frances Whitford, a Métis artisan and I.A.M. director, learned to work with moosehide and fur watching her Métis grandmother in Anzac, south of Fort McMurray. She recalls her grandfather’s trapline as a source of materials that were turned into mukluks and jackets.

“In our culture, you’re mainly taught by watching. All the things my grandmother would do, tanning hides, beadwork, the trapline; was part of my everyday life,” said Whitford.

Her brother and cousin have now stepped into their grandfather’s shoes, supplying furs and hide for her Beadwork & Bannock business, which was inspired by the family’s desire to preserve their Métis heritage.

“I didn’t realize I was taught something very special to my culture. It wasn’t until my grandmother passed away, that I realized it would be lost,” said Whitford.

A member of the Tataskweyak Cree Nation of northern Manitoba, I.A.M. director James Fox recalls wanting to connect to his Cree heritage, so in 2017, he joined Indigenous craft classes at the Edmonton library. From there it was beading lessons at the Native Friendship Centre, and his current Cree-ations now range from rawhide rattles and fish scale art to caribou hair tufting and leather crafts.

“When I started doing beadwork I wanted to keep the traditions, but I always add a modern twist,” said Fox. 

Creations by members of the collective are available at the Downtown Farmers Market in Edmonton, and at Fort Edmonton Park in the summer.

 “It’s very important to us, promoting authentic Indigenous arts,” Whitford said. “The number of beautiful artists is amazing.”

For more, visit https://iamcollective.ca/

JULY 2023:

MAY 29, 2023:

In less than two months, the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation will be ground zero for the 9th annual RedCan invitational graffiti jam, the first and only event of its kind in Indian Country. RedCan is scheduled for July 5-8, 2023, and is open to the public.

The Cheyenne River Youth Project announced the names of the 12 featured artists who will paint murals around the Eagle Butte community on July 5-6 and in CRYP’s public Waniyetu Wowapi (Winter Count) Art Park on July 7-8. The grassroots, Native- and woman-led nonprofit organization also unveiled a short film about the RedCan project titled “Changing the Narrative.”

“Five of our 2022 featured artists were Native women, and all five are returning this year,” said Julie Garreau, CRYP’s executive director. “We are excited to amplify their voices, perspectives and gifts through this little film, just as we are honored to welcome them back to Cheyenne River for four more days of creation, connection, cultural exchange, and the healing, transformative power of art.”

Those artists are 179, Lucious, Rezmo, TamiJoy and Yukue. Also part of the Redcan 2023 lineup are East, Cyfi, Hoka, Biafra, Wundr, Lawst and Desi Mundo.

During the four painting days, each artist will work closely with a CRYP Lakota Art Fellow or teen intern. These young Lakota art students will be able to learn new skills and practice new techniques as they assist the artists.

“This mentorship is a vital part of RedCan,” Garreau explained. “Not only does it bring Native and non-Native artists from across the country to our homelands, giving our community members a priceless opportunity to engage with the largest art movement in the history of humankind, it also gives our young people opportunities to explore their identities, share their voices and stories, and grow as artists.”

“I’m excited that even more teens are interested in participating in RedCan this year,” said Wakinyan Chief, CRYP’s art manager. “One of our programs assistant trainees completed several teen internships with us, and he’s heading into his third RedCan. Every couple of weeks, he tells me how much he’s looking forward to this summer’s event.”

Most of the featured artists have participated in multiple RedCans, as well; in fact, some have participated since the inaugural event in 2015. According to Garreau, that has deepened the RedCan experience in ways that she and her staff couldn’t have anticipated in the beginning.

“We’ve seen lifelong friendships develop, and the artists often refer to RedCan as a family,” she said. “That is profoundly moving to all of us at CRYP, because relationships lie at the heart of everything we do. And as we strengthen the bonds between us, we also see beautiful collaborative work develop — particularly between our guest artists, local Cheyenne River artists, and our young art students. It’s such an honor to witness this unfold year after year.”

While the artists paint in the community, CRYP and its volunteers will host youth arts, crafts and recreational activities at dedicated community sites. Then, when the artists move to the art park, the action moves with them.

“In the past, our two days in the art park have included DJ music, Lakota exhibition dancing, field day games, arts activities, hoop-dancing classes, and so much more,” said Jerica Widow, CRYP’s programs director. “It’s a joy to see the kids learning and having fun while family members and guests stroll through the park, enjoy the music and dancing, and watch the artists work.”

Community members also frequently gather at the mural sites in town, and not just the new ones. Garreau noted that, last year, CRYP staff witnessed people stopping at the older murals as well and discussing the details of the artwork with their companions.

“Our community really has embraced RedCan,” she reflected. “Throughout each year, as we drive or walk around town, we see all of this art — literally hundreds of murals since RedCan began — that uplifts us and reflects who we are as Lakota people. It is really powerful.

“For me, it’s a centering point,” she continued. “That’s so important, because the work we do here can be really challenging.”

On Friday and Saturday, July 7-8, CRYP will close each painting day in the art park with a free community meal and special performance on the Waniyetu Wowapi Art Park stage. Cheyenne River Lakota and Crow Creek Dakota rap artist, producer and sound designer Bazille will perform Friday night.

The Wake Singers, an Olgala Lakota rock band comprising cousins Douglas, Michael and Reed Two Bulls, will take the stage on Saturday. And, as always, the Cheyenne River-based Wakinyan Maza drum group will open and close each day of RedCan with a prayer, smudging and drum song for all who wish to participate.

In 2022, acclaimed hoop dancers The Sampson Brothers performed on RedCan’s final evening.
Photo credit Cheyenne River Youth Project.

Featured artists paint at mural sites in the community for RedCan’s first two days, then paint in the art park during the event’s final two days.
Photo credit Cheyenne River Youth Project.

Rockport artist Elizabeth Harty’s “400 Glosta” poster captures the salt of the sea spirit of America’s Oldest Seaport in an original block print that is not the city’s official quadricentennial poster, but certainly could be.

Harty, who makes her home and art in what was originally a 17th century Rockport tavern, is quite an original herself.

Though not native to Cape Ann, like many local artists and writers, she summered here as a child and returned like a homing pigeon to its influential roots. In her case, this followed a long career as a commercial artist illustrating for clients that included the Washington Post. “They’d send me the stories and I’d illustrate them,” she says of her work for D.C.’s famed daily.

That talent for capturing the spirit of a story in a picture is very much evident in her “400 Glosta” poster. Like Lanesville’s famed Folly Cove Designers, Harty is a skilled block printer reproducing from images she carves into linoleum blocks. But as a painter, she also works in mixed media, exploring, in her words, “the relationships of texture, color, shape and line,” and incorporating them with the technique of collage

This she has done to whimsical and authentically “weather-beaten” effect in her poster

Here are images that belong uniquely to Gloucester. St Peter, patron saint of fishermen, Our Lady of Good Voyage cradling a fishing boat bound for the sea, the fish that the fishermen bring home from the sea, and the seagulls that follow them into port. and there in the port, the iconic sails of a Gloucester schooner, and anchoring it all, the red brick and mortar grandeur of City Hall.

In the 20-so years that Harty has lived on Cape Ann, she has lovingly produced varied versions of all these images, both in acrylic paintings and block prints that have done a brisk business sold locally greeting cards

Block printing, says Harty, allows her to manipulate the process to achieve the weathered quality of a hard-working waterfront.

That, says Harty is the spirit she wanted to celebrate in her “400 Glosta” poster. “I just really did it for fun,” she told the Times, but she had second thoughts when it came to selling it, as the Gloucester 400+ Committee has strict copyright guidelines.

Luckily for her, her spelling of Gloucester as “Glosta,” and use of the number 400 without the plus, got the green light from the committee, and it is “flying out the door” where it’s on sale at Gloucester’s Pop Gallery and Rockport’s Seaside Boutique and Beads as a limited edition signed original print. It is available as a poster, also signed, in Gloucester at Pop Gallery, Art & Antiques, Alexandra’s Bread on Main Street, at the Building Center Gift shop and the Gloucester Stage Company. Prices begin at $50, vary accordingly, and prints are sized for standard frames.

Harty’s extensive collection of colorful abstract acrylics can be seen at https://www.elizabethharty.com/ElizabethHarty.com/Bio.html. Or, you can stop by Machacha, the Rogers Street Mexican restaurant that celebrates south of the border with a gallery of Harty’s spicy acrylics. Her works have also hung in galleries and in showrooms at the art associations in Rockport and Gloucester. Fifty of her abstract acrylics are now on view in two retrospectives Danvers-based Cell Signaling Technology, a supporter of the arts.