Family, friends, and beading – connecting through cultural skills
By Rick Garrick
FORT WILLIAM — A group of beaders enjoyed learning how to do edge beading on home-tanned moose hide during the Bead Your Heart Out workshop on Feb. 8 at the Social Services office in Fort William First Nation.
“It was absolutely the greatest time ever,” says Tania Johnson, a Fort William citizen who created a bolo tie for her edge-beaded heart-shaped home-tanned moose hide brooch. “It feels good when you wear something you made, it gives you a little sense of pride.”
Johnson says she loved doing the beading on the heart-shaped piece of home-tanned moose hide that was prepared by Jean Marshall, who led the workshop along with assistant Georgette Gilbeau.
“I love the smell of it,” Johnson says. “The smell of moose brain tanned hide is the best smell in the world; that smoke smell, I love it.”
Johnson also enjoyed beading with the other beaders during the workshop.
“I had such a good time, I get to see my family, my friends, I get to meet new people,” Johnson says. “I love hanging with people, I like making people feel good, I like making people laugh, that’s what it’s all about.”
Katy Boissoneau, a Garden River citizen, says the workshop was beautiful.
“It was very meaningful and I love programs like this where you get to create something with your family,” Boissoneau says. “I love learning new cultural skills and beading. I was here with my mom, it was great.”
Denise Boissoneau-Stanford, a Garden River citizen and Boissoneau’s mother, says she loved the workshop.
“I love coming out and being with the ladies,” Boissoneau-Stanford says. “I’m feeling lots of community here today and I absolutely love it.”
Boissoneau-Stanford says she also enjoyed doing the edge beading on the home-tanned moose hide.
“You can just smell the nice smoke off of it, it’s beautiful actually,” Boissoneau-Stanford says. “It turned out really good, I absolutely love it. It’s a two-in-one, so it’s going to be a necklace and it’s also a brooch.”
Buffy Louttit, a Fort Albany citizen, says the workshop was awesome.
“I just had an amazing time learning how to bead, doing what I always wanted to learn,” Louttit says. “I should have learned from my kokum, but I didn’t get a chance to. I just had a wonderful time and highly recommend it to anyone, beginner, intermediate, whatever. That was my first time ever working with home-tanned hide — it was lots of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Gilbeau, who was originally from Long Lake #58 but now lives in Fort William, says she appreciated the opportunity to help Marshall with the workshop.
“I’ve been beading now for a couple of years,” Gilbeau says, adding that it was great to do the edge beading on the home-tanned moose hide. “You could smell it, the smell stuck to your skin, it’s very nice.”
Marshall, a Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug citizen who lives in Fort William, says the workshop was a beginner/introductory beading workshop.
“So it’s really nice for people who have no experience and it’s also really nice for people who have lots of experience,” Marshall says. “We celebrated today by working on home tanned moose hide — we edge beaded a heart and we focused our energy on self-care and thinking about what you love to do and what carries you in a good way. Once they were done edge beading their heart, they were given the opportunity to make it into a pin or a necklace. To make it into a necklace, they braided the yarns and attached it to the heart.”