Mother’s Day Historic Cradleboard Exhibit connects community to tradition

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — The Cradleboard Collective, a group of First Nations women, displayed their collection of more than 250 cradleboards at the Outset, Ingaged Creative Productions’ newly refurbished venue in Thunder Bay, on May 10-11.

“Tikinagans are the Anishinabe cradleboards — we use the word cradleboard with this exhibition because it represents most, if not all, of the First Nations in North America,” says Shirley Stevens, a member of the Cradleboard Collective and a Red Rock Indian Band citizen. “Every tribal group has a word for their specific cradle, here it happens to be tikinagan, and they are made of the Indigenous materials that were around where the people lived.”

The collection included cradleboards from the Nawagesic and Sabourin families, as well as a Northwest Coast wood carving of a cradleboard by Jimmy Joseph, a fourth-generation carver from Alert Bay, B.C.

“When we first started thinking we needed exhibits, we used the Nawagesic family cradle kind of as our anchor,” Stevens says, noting it was made by Paul Shonias. “He made cradles for that family and other families in the community. [The late Patty Nawagesic] was really active in supporting this; she was one of our cradle keepers.”

Beverly Sabourin, a member of the Cradleboard Collective and a Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg citizen, says the Nawagesic family cradleboard was passed down for many generations.

“That is the poster cradle for the exhibit,” Sabourin says. “Many children were raised in that cradle.”

Sabourin says the collection includes two Sabourin cradleboards that were made by her grandmother, Alice Sabourin.

“My cradle, the small one, I was raised in it, so that’s like 77 years old,” Sabourin says, adding that her grandmother made a cradleboard for her future children before she passed on at 85 years old. “Within two months, I was pregnant and my son was born the following nine months, so that’s his cradle.”

Sabourin says her grandparents, Alice and Patrick Sabourin, used to make cradleboards for people in the area around her community.

“Now my grandmother’s cradles are popping up everywhere,” Sabourin says, noting that the Sabourin cradleboards are decorated with burnt circles and carvings of flowers. “All of that is my grandmother’s work, all the beadwork and that too, so mostly they were known as the ones making the cradles in Heron Bay.”

Corey Anderson, managing director at Ingaged Creative Productions, says it is an honour to have the collection of cradleboards in the Outset building, which is located on Simpson St.

“This is really exciting, not only for our space but for our community,” Anderson says. “This has been an opportunity to meet many of our neighbours and to introduce them to not only some of that work we do but a lot of the work they have been doing. It helps connect us not only with our community and the area, the street, the region, but with the wider world all right here from our new venue, the Outset.”

Shannon Anderson, communications officer and event lead at Ingaged Creative Productions, says she first saw the Cradleboard Collective’s collection of cradleboards at a St. Joseph’s Survivors Gathering at the Best Western Plus NorWester Hotel and Conference Centre in Thunder Bay.

“We’re honestly very honoured that the first public time we’re opening these doors was with the cradle keepers and with this unbelievable collection,” she says. “We bought the old East End Prosvita in July, and we have been working away ever since with so much help from family and friends. It is going to be open to the public now and I think this was a wonderful way to begin.”