Hat artist passionate about lending a helping hand creates sobriety support program
By Kelly Anne Smith
WINNIPEG—Winnipeg hat milliner and designer Ron Kerr enjoys the process of creativity as he encompasses cultural importance in his pieces. Kerr’s visions extend to social justice.
As Kerr starts his story in the middle of November, he speaks of the weather in Manitoba because he is in it most nights of the week patrolling with Morgan’s Warriors.
“Oh, no snow. It’s been hovering around 6 to zero every day to night. This is incredible weather for us right now because we do between 10 and 15 thousand steps a night. It’s a lot of walking but it’s good heart work, right?”
Ron Kerr is passionate about his busy outreach schedule within the communities. Kerr explains he has been a support for the Morgan Harris family, one of the women that was taken by serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.
“I’ve been a support for Morgan Harris’s family throughout the trial, the pretrial, protests, walks, marches, think tank groups, just doing things with the family,” says Kerr. “We had thought and processed how are we going to start this group. It’s a female Indigenous-led group who give us direction; males are the support. We offer as much support as we can as men, but at the end of the day, it’s our women that we have to take care of and support and nurture as well because that’s who brought us into this world.”
Morgan’s Warriors successfully conduct community searches for missing individuals. Morgan’s Warriors patrol in groups of 15 to 20. They give out clothing, walk with a nurse and people trained in Naloxone administration and offer support with mental health crises.
“As a group, we’ve found I think it’s five people so far, since we started in the spring. It’s impactful. It feels good to know we’re helping community that way,” shares Kerr. “We go late in the evenings between seven and 11. And it usually extends out from there that we end up just continuing on. There’s a lot of people out there that need support and help and direction where to go.”
Monetary, clothing, food, sanitary, and first aid donations are accepted by Morgan’s Warriors to disperse to people who need it.
“Whatever we would use in the community, we accept because there’s always necessity. A lot of individuals that are out there that are houseless, they need just basic supplies sometimes.”
Kerr says he can’t count how many times they’ve come across people who have blisters and swelling.
“Feet and hands are some of the worst areas for people out there that are living that way in the community because they’re exposed to different elements that we take for granted. We have proper footwear but they may not,” explains Kerr. “We do it with care and compassion and loving… We really care about our relatives that are out there and the supports that they need because they are all human beings. They all have a purpose in life. And sometimes they get lost because of addiction or because the system isn’t there to help them for housing.”
Kerr shares that there are other prominent issues.
“We are finding that a lot of people who are having substance abuse issues, they continue on because they cannot get into sober living or into a detox or wherever they need to be. That’s a problem with our system. There’s not enough space for everyone who are out there. And they get lost in the cracks. Some of them we don’t see again because they get lost to that addiction and its heart-breaking. It’s on a daily basis. We see people in these situations and they want to get out but they’re put on the bottom of the list.”
Ron explains his own journey to sobriety.
“I became sober almost four years ago now. My Métis culture – we have a lot of cultural things that I disconnected from at one point. Just because I wasn’t mentally present for that. For me, it was alcohol, I was an alcoholic. When I got lost in alcohol, I really didn’t care about anything else. I was a paralegal bailiff for over 27 years. I was really focused on my career and my social life. I didn’t really put a lot of effort in community work. When I got sober, I found that an Indigenous path was more in my line for recovery. The generalized system of recovery was failing a lot of people. I’m Métis so, I found there was a difficult path for me to follow. For me, I was trying to find this alignment with my community. I attended sweats, talked to Elders, learned some other practices, trying to practice the seven teachings. It will be a lifetime to gain all this knowledge I really should have.”
In reconnecting with his Métis community, Ron became stronger knowing his roots as a Red River Métis citizen.
“Throughout my sobriety, I’ve helped many individuals along their path based on my success and failure because I had failures when I initially started. So, I suggest to others to find healthy outlets. Things to do in your life that are meaningful, positive things to take up your time in a healthy way. I found that in one of the things I was doing – community outreach and community supports… I’m supporting my community that I live in that is very multi-cultural. I became a board member through my residence association as well. I’m trying to balance all this hard work and volunteer work throughout the community. That’s important to me. I felt that if I can give back to somebody else something that I learned or that I felt would be helpful. I thought I was given a second chance for life. I have this opportunity to share good will and share positive outlook on life and all these other good things that come with sobriety. When you get that and you get that clarity, it feels really good to help.”
Kerr is now working with the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) to develop a sobriety group to support men.
“This is something that I’m doing with my government to try and offer supports that are culturally connected because craft and music and our practices are very important to our culture and how we express ourselves out there. MMF has a process where we bring it local and then it gets to the regional government and then our national government. We have a beyond borders program, which means we have citizens who live outside the province…They want to see these programs get developed and absorbed into different aspects of our departments – education, agriculture, and health, and wellness. We have a justice department where these types of programs can augment the programs and services that they already offer. It’s not just about recovery, it’s about finding healthy solutions for living.”
A balance to his social work, Kerr relishes his creative energy and time as a milliner and designer of hats.
“I create things based on what I’m feeling or feeling about the materials. I like to use a lot of natural materials so hides and skins, teeth, claws, pheasant feathers. I do a lot of custom work as well. For example, somebody, he wanted to reflect his family, things that his father used to do. When I’m designing, I’m taking that into consideration. It’s more than just a hat. It’s an art piece worn with pride…I prefer working with old, weathered, vintage hats if I can find them then I like using those. It’s reforming. There’s steaming and reforming using blocks to give it shape, give it a new life. They feel better. There’s something different about older hats that feel better than modern hats. Most modern hats now are synthetics. They’re not the same.”
The milliner says some of the hats take 10 to 20 hours to reform because of the previous impression, marks, or flaws.
“I redid my Grandfather’s hat. It was a crushed hat from 1940 something. When I got it finished, and it was a lot of work, it was like a new hat again. It was incredible to see this. I was so proud of it.”
Ron says the same effort goes into hats he makes for others, appreciating what the customer envisions.
“I ask them, do you have a colour preference? Do you have a style preference? Do you want me to create something for you and make it unique? Are there things that you want included? I always ask those things because I think it’s important to make it for an individual. I want somebody to feel that if they receive something, it’s a piece of work. It’s something that signifies them or their family or something culturally significant that will augment whatever else they wear. I try to be cognizant of that. They help me in my designs.”
“I’ve used a lot of moose hide. I’ve done some trademark things. I’m working on a hat with weasels racing around it. So, I’m trying to make them impactful and important. One of the hats I’m making right now, this is something, it’s an old top hat from the 1800s.”
“You’re probably aware of some of the people in our culture like Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont; they made an impact because of resistance against government. I have this idea I’m working on right now. Renee Cable, NDP MLA and Minister of Advanced Education and Training for the Province of Manitoba gifted me a Union Jack flag. At first I thought, what am I going to do with this and a hat? So, I’m designing a hat called Resistance. On the inside of it, there’s going to be a liner where it’s going to be a map to the Battle of Seven Oaks. It’s going to be a treasure map. On the outside, it will have something culturally significant and beaded. But I want to have that Union Jack covering it up because we as a people, we really had to play different roles to get where we were. We weren’t considered Indigenous and we weren’t considered white, but we fought for our rights and our people. If you take that Union Jack off, it signifies who we are.”
To view Ron Kerr’s hat collection, visit: Indigenous Art Collective.