Artist draws on trapping heritage to create contemporary work
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY—Janelle Wawia from Red Rock Indian Band has found a new outlet for her trapping heritage — the creation of fur hats from the pelts of animals caught on her family’s trapline.
“I try to use fur from our trapline, but I also have a supplier as well that I use,” says Wawia, an artisan at the Artisans Northwest 41st Annual Art and Fine Craft Show, held Nov. 12-13 at the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay. “I try to do more contemporary work with a little bit of traditional as well.”
Wawia usually sends her pelts out for tanning.
“I do have a moose hide that I want to tan myself and kind of teach myself,” Wawia says. “But I have the day job so I kind of just have to go with what I have right now.”
Wawia works with her customers on what they want her to create for them. She also gets requests from people to do repairs or to make new garments or items from their old fur coats.
“I make mitts, moccasins and hats for adults to children,” Wawia says. “I make custom jewelry as well, bracelets, earrings. I dye my own quills out at my cabin. I’ve also made a clutch with black fox and leather, so I can make anything.”
Wawia says her hats and moccasins are her most popular products.
“They are warm — they keep us warm out on the trapline,” Wawia says. “It’s just sustaining your heritage and going full circle.”
Wawia says her parents trapped for many years and taught her and her siblings all the skills they needed to be in the bush. She is a helper on her family’s trapline, which is located near Nipigon.
“I go to the bush by myself and I am confident out there,” Wawia says. “I am teaching my son and my nieces the traditional ways as much as I can. Hopefully they pick up and build this kind of life too.”
Wawia says her more interesting orders involve the use of dyed furs, which she purchases from a supplier.
“Just different kinds of colours, the funky colours,” Wawia says, pointing to some samples of purple-dyed coyote and fox furs and black sheared beaver furs she had on display for potential customers. “They want something unique and that is what I am able to produce.”
Wawia says time is the key to the quality of her work.
“I don’t rush a job,” Wawia says. “You hear people have moccasins or mitts from 20 or 30 years ago, and that is what I want to sustain.”
Wawia’s future goals are to continue working with furs and her art, which she also had on sale at the craft show.
“I’m also a painter in acrylics,” Wawia says. “I’ve been painting and drawing as a young girl, but working along as a helper on my family’s trapline kind of influenced my work and my connection to the land.”
Wawia says her spirit keeps telling her to paint.
“I just go with what my heart and my spirit says I need to keep creating,” Wawia says, noting her paintings are about connections to the land and are an autobiography of her life.
Wawia says the Into the Sun print she had on sale at the craft sale was “about strong Anishinaabe women and just embracing life, embracing everything that comes to her, and being grateful for waking up every day.”
Wawia can be contacted by email at: jwawia@gmail.com or through her Facebook page: Janelle Wawia – artist – embracecreative.