Artist shares beading skills with enterprising youth
By Kelly Anne Smith
LONDON—Working as a vendor at pow wows is a fun venture, especially when the art on one vendor table is a collaboration of three talented women.
Kylie Petahtegoose and her sister Nung-Guanze are from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and create for Giizis Anang Creations. And Mary Capton of the Six Nations of the Grand River is the artist of Capton’s Creations. They sell popular jewellery and other beaded crafts.
Kylie works with students during the school year. Always enjoying expressing herself through art, she says that as a young person, she took delight in sketching, painting, and crafting. Beading came later.
“I never knew how to bead when I was younger. I didn’t learn until I was in my twenties. That was something I had always had an interest in and really wanted to do, but I didn’t really know where to get started. I grew up in the city, in Windsor, and we didn’t have access to a lot of that kind of stuff, especially in the schools anyway. So, now that I’m working in the schools and have the skills and the abilities, I really enjoy sharing that with the youth. And giving them the tools to be able to create and even provide for themselves.”
In a school project, Kylie had students from two schools submit their beadwork and artwork for the Antler River Pow Wow. They made around $500 between all of the students and had their work and efforts highlighted. She recounts the students being excited when Kylie distributed the money that they earned at the pow wow.
“There is more interest now in getting more things done and learning some more now that they see, ‘I can provide for myself this way. I can get a little bit of extra money for myself. My work is good. People out there want it.’ So, it’s just really nice to see. And they are young students, too. They are only in Grades 7 and 8, about 12 or 13 years old.”
Kylie taught the students how to bead.
“There are a handful of students who are quite efficient beaders now. They are making some pretty awesome stuff. And all of the beadwork sold right away at the event. It was one of the fastest things that went at the table. We have a lot of painting artists as well who submitted their paintings, and a lot of those sold, too. But the beadwork was very popular.”
Kylie talks to the students about beading being a healing art.
“Beading is like medicine. It’s something that can help to calm your mind and help to keep you present in the moment. In a lot of conversations I’ve had with students, working on beading or painting is like learning how to be kind to yourself, too. And learning things is a process. It’s not all going to be perfect right away. It’s not going to be instant gratification. Some students are working on these projects for weeks at a time because they might only work on it for a little bit this week, a little bit the next week. But once they finish a project, they are so excited to show other staff in the building. There’s a lot that can be learned from participating in such a slow craft. It’s really cool to see some of them kind of push through some of the frustration sometimes.”
Kylie explains that her sister Nung-Guanze is a beading artist who works with animals.
“For Giizis Anang Creations, it’s a combination of my work and my sister’s work. And so, my sister is the one who fosters dogs in honour of her cat, Soy. She’s fostered well over 100 dogs now from all over Ontario and Quebec. She has done incredible work with that. Beading is how she provides for herself right now. That’s a big chunk of her income. That allows her to continue to be able to go to school (accounting) and continue fostering. She’s got her one cat and all her foster dogs and I have my cats, my dogs, and my horse.”
Mary Capton and Kylie often travel together, sharing booths, spaces, and doing events.
“It makes a world of difference being able to collaborate together. And that is something I mention to my students a lot, too. I’m like, ‘If you guys are just starting, you can split vendor fees with friends. You can go in with other people and help each other and work together.’ So, trying to foster that collaboration and community piece as well.”
Another vendor posted online that Kylie was informative in helping her get started. Kylie appreciated the “lovely feedback” and in turn, promotes what she calls lateral love.
“There’s enough room for all of us to be successful. I think that things get better for everyone if we’re supporting everyone and helping one another grow, and making sure people have access. I think part of that, for me, comes from growing up urban and not having as much access, at least in school. To be able to make that a little easier to get into it and learn to reconnect and be a part of community, and to have those skills and be able to express themselves as well. So, there’s no jealousy here, nothing like that. Just really want to see people succeed and build that community and that’s what I highlight to the youth I work with, too, that it doesn’t have to be a competition. There’s that one phrase, we rise by lifting others. I think that’s incredibly true. It’s something I want to embody. So, if I’m speaking that to the youth and I’m talking to youth about that, I want to make sure I’m living that as well.”
Learning how to bead came in pieces when she was growing up, says Kylie.
“When I went to Georgian College, I had a brief introduction at the Indigenous Centre there. They did a beading workshop at the school. It was actually during COVID. It was one of those COVID projects that I got into. There were a couple of friends, Mary being one of them. We got together and taught ourselves how to bead. We had looked at a lot of videos, too. It grew from that.”
Giizis Anang Creations artists enjoy wearing their own earrings and working with different media.
“My sister and I, we trade a lot of our own earrings. She makes a lot of the fringe work. I have a ton of those and I’m actually wearing one today. We like working with all sorts of different colours. She creates really amazing colour combinations. We use moons and stars and charms. We try to incorporate different natural materials as well. And we’re starting to get into antler work. I’d say it’s a bit of everything. It depends on the day. Usually, it’s brighter colours and brighter themes.”
Nung-Guanze agrees.
“Yes, I think I do a lot of neons and neutrals. It kind of depends on the mood I’m feeling and the beads I have available.”
For the pow wow trail, Nung-Guanze works with medicine colours.
“For the pow wows, I tend to do more medicine colours, so like the four directions. We do a lot of pride events, so we also do a lot of really colourful pride colours as well.”
Kylie says the artists do a lot of big statement pieces, usually during pow wow season.
“Nung-Guanze makes some incredibly long shoulder dusters. And there was one person that coined a cute term for them. She called them shoulder dancers. It’s been our term for them ever since.”