Artists in Deshkan Ziibiing showcase their talents in video series

By Colin Graf

DESHKAN ZIIBIING— Some of the many talented artists and craft workers in Deshkan Ziibiing [Chippewas of the Thames First Nation (COTTFN)] are having their abilities showcased in a series of videos to be shared on Facebook.

The videos, created for the Anishinaabe’aadziiwin (Language, Culture, Heritage) Department, give voice to the artists’ and Elders’ life stories and hope for the roles that creative expression will play in the future for their people.

Much of Anishinaabe culture has been damaged so much by the experience of residential schooling that “many of our people didn’t know who they were, didn’t know their history,” and lost touch with traditional arts and crafts, says Nancy Deleary, Cultural Coordinator at COTT,  in the first of the videos, produced by Huff Media Solutions of Moraviantown First Nation.

Conforming to settler ways of life led to “segregated generations” with Elders living apart from their succeeding generations, she says, which in turn meant that there has been “no talking together, no stories being told, and no skills being passed on.”

Deleary sees this pattern in her own family.

“There is a great need to revive and create those spaces [for artistic work] in our communities, so we can relearn those skills of living on the land, living with the land, and creating a livelihood from that. It’s within the works of creating that our identity and our stories come through,” Deleary says. ”We have so many talented people in our community.  I have always said to myself, ‘Our people are very gifted.’  Maybe that was why such an effort was made to wipe out who we are… Indian Affairs didn’t foster language, culture, heritage; it has all been from the people.”

Deleary hopes the stories in the videos, titled, Community Talents & Gifts, will inspire younger generations to pursue artistic experiences.

One artist, Nancy’s daughter Mary Deleary, draws inspiration from Anishinaabe floral designs, both contemporary and historical. Living in Oklahoma while pursuing her PhD in Native Art History, she does beadwork and makes sweetgrass medallions in her free time.  Deleary also works on recovering Anishinabe art forms and history in southwestern Ontario.

“When it comes to learning traditional ways, it’s important because our ancestors held a lot of knowledge about how to live, thrive, survive, and maintain good relationships with their surroundings, and that was disrupted by colonialism. When we look at reclaiming knowledge….we are repositioning ourselves to continue making and creating Anishinaabe life today and for the future,” she tells viewers of her segment.

Clothing is the medium seamstress Felicia Huff uses to help COTTFN members create their identity. She makes ribbon shirts and skirts in consultation with the wearer, knowing their choice of colour and style is important.

“It’s not just a cosmetic thing, it actually helps identify and to help [someone] fit into the role they have accepted or been given in our community,” she says. “It’s not just an item, not just a piece of fabric, it’s something that will become part of their life.”

“When a woman puts on her skirt, she’s not just representing herself. She’s not just representing what she has done today, she’s representing a whole big part of her history, her lineage, generations that came before,” Huff adds.

Multi-talented artist Nicholas R. Deleary of COTTFN aims to revive historical Anishinaabe patterns and designs and “marry that with what I do as an artist”. Deleary’s inspiration in his etching, engraving, painting, and silversmith work comes from historical artifacts, even those that come from archaeological digs. In the 1970s, he was working for the Union of Ontario Indians, now known as the Anishinabek Nation, as a cartographer for land claims when he drew the Anishinabek logo, he relates in his video segment. Deleary, 4th-degree Midewin of the Three Fires, has researched the use of different patterns in Anishinaabe art and attributes the change from older geometric forms to floral designs in the 1800s to the arrival of new types of beads from the European settlers.

Leatherworker Mitchell Riley learned his craft from his grandfather, who showed the curious boy how to work with the material. Riley says he puts a lot of thought into the person who will be wearing the item he is making. His grandmother also taught some leatherworking techniques, and Riley says he feels inspired by his cultural traditions.

“I wasn’t always in a good place.  I can use my art to feel better about myself and help others feel better about themselves.”

The artists did not rehearse before their videos were recorded, but Nancy Deleary says they all hit on the same themes.

“They honoured the ancestors, they honoured their gifts, and when they learned how important [their talent] was to their culture, they’re turning around and sharing it,” she says.

The wealth of talent in her community has led Deleary and other artists to search for a place to create studio space and physically display their creations at COTTFN. Deleary believes that artists benefit by being around each other, especially younger ones just starting out.

“You need confidence when you are creating artworks. You do look to others who can inspire you and spark that in you.”

Deleary and other artists at COTTFN are in the early stages of a campaign to create that space inside an historic building in their community with a troubling past; the former horse barn that is the only remaining structure from the notorious Mount Elgin residential school that was in operation in the community from 1851-1946.

The First Nation is at the point of creating a task group to start fundraising to save the barn and “convert it into a place of learning our culture and our heritage,” says Deleary, adding that the group needs to consult with the community about the plan, given the fact “that school really did a lot of damage here. There’s some traumatic family issues around it.”

Fundraising for the barn was set to start in 2020, with a concert being planned at the 9,000-seat Budweiser Gardens in nearby London, Ont., when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The concert, planned for Solidarity Day last June was meant to cap off days of artistic events in the city, including a series of 12 workshops in various art forms to be held for COTTFN members, whether living on- or off-territory. The project aimed to promote entrepreneurship in the arts, showing would-be artists how to promote and sell their work.

In spite of the cancellation of the London plans, Deleary is pleased the workshops were salvaged in a more limited form, taking place on the Nation’s own territory last summer, instead of in London. Art forms included jewellery, ceramics, soapstone-carving, sash-weaving, and drawing. They were held in-person up until Dec. and participants had a chance to sell their creations at a Christmas art market held before the after-Christmas lockdown.

Deleary hopes to restart the classes in May “when we can gather outside,” she says.

The fundraising group is also looking at how to get the Mount Elgin barn recognized as a national heritage site, Deleary adds.