Anishnaabekwe vying for Miss Indigenous Canada encourages revitalizing culture and crafting
By Kelly Anne Smith
ALGONQUINS OF PIKWÀKANAGÀN FIRST NATION— Five women from the Anishinabek Nation compete for the inaugural Miss Indigenous Canada crown on July 27 in Ohsweken, Ontario.
Meiyah Whiteduck of the Bear Clan of the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation is excited for the opportunity to represent her home community in the Miss Indigenous Canada contest.
Meiyah is an Indigenous student worker with Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board overseeing cultural learning at 13 different schools.
“I provide access to mainly cultural programming to Indigenous students that looks different for every student. For example, we’re learning how to make mini birchbark canoes. For May 5th, for Red Dress Day, we were painting and learning about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women [and Girls] and the Red Dress movement. I figure out what they are interested in doing and then I prep different activities and different teachings.”
Meiyah has been connected to culture from a young age with her parents strongly connected.
“I started off connecting to culture through pow wow dancing. My grandma has always made my regalias. That really flourished into me wanting to learn how to bead because I saw all these people that I looked up to with all this gorgeous bead work. With this beading, I thought, Ok, there’s so much more I can do. For example, I do quillwork on birchbark, which is something I recently started doing. I do leatherwork now. I’ve made mitts. I’ve made moccasins. Beading is a big passion of mine.”
Meiyah is excited to be in the progressive Miss Indigenous Canada contest.
“I thought this is a great way for us as Indigenous people to be represented in our own way because we don’t align necessarily with the traditional pageant values. And this is totally cultural. There’s no beauty portion of this pageant. It really is cultural. The night of the show everyone will be doing their own traditional cultural presentations,” explains Meiyah. “My platform in specific is focusing on cultural revitalization and crafting in order to support mental health and destressing. If I were to become Miss Indigenous Canada, that would continue to be my platform throughout my reign…What I would like to do with my platform is use my Facebook, use my TikTok, use my Instagram to provide videos where I can show people how to bead. I can show people all the skills I have, to share them to a wider community. Once I got into beading and I got into quillwork and leatherwork, for me, it was a big help with my mental health. It was a way where I could sit down and focus on one thing, destress, disconnect from everything with the outside world.”
Meiyah is a singer, drummer, and a dancer, too.
“I have always danced Fancy Shawl. And then just recently in the past two years, I’ve started my journey as a Jingle Dress dancer as well. I have always grown up kind of knowing these teachings like what connects me as a Fancy Shawl dancer and the idea behind it, which is we’re representing all those stages with the butterfly from the chrysalis before our song starts. And then our song starts and we start to emerge like the butterfly does. And we’re dancing. The whole idea is we’re floating along when we’re dancing. That’s why we’re dancing so fast. That’s why we’re spinning.”
“Recently, I really felt a pull towards Jingle Dress dancing. I think it just ties to my own kind of journey connecting with culture, and kind of healing from past traumas and inter-generational traumas. I started working together with my grandma to start dancing jingle. We figured out what my vision was with my Jingle Dress. I was a big part of that, which was also a big step because usually my grandma creates and I have the input. But this was start to finish I was helping her create it,” she continues. “This was a big journey for me, because along with that, I wanted a fan. And during that time, I was gifted an Eagle Feather from my grandfather. And throughout my dancing in the past years, not only have I healed, but I think I really connected with people helping them heal. In making those connections, I was also gifted an Eagle Fan from my Grandpa. So, it’s been a big and emotional journey becoming a Jingle Dress dancer.”
Meiyah wants everyone to think about the charity the Miss Indigenous Canada is supporting.
“The official charity that we are campaigning for is the We Matter campaign. I’m raffling off some of my quill pieces for my fundraising. Just spreading the word and then if people are interested, they can donate directly as well.”
Cheering each other on are Sarah Lewis and Anjolene Pine from Curve Lake; Alabama Bressette from Kettle & Stony Point First Nation; and Meiyah Whiteduck of Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn.