Chapman’s Gas Bar Christmas Craft Sale success grows as shoppers embrace Christmas spirit

By Rick Garrick

FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION — The Chapman’s Gas Bar Christmas Crafts Sale was a hit with artists, craftspeople and customers on the weekend of Dec. 14-15 in Fort William First Nation.

“It’s bigger and better every year,” says Christian Chapman, one of the organizers of the craft sale and a Fort William artist who had some of his screen prints for sale. “[There] were lots of people.”

Elliott Doxtater-Wynn, an artist whose parents are from Six Nations and Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, says he has enjoyed participating in the crafts sale since the beginning.

“This sale has been on for years,” Doxtater-Wynn says. “I was actually one of the first couple of people sitting at a table at the gas station when it first started, and now it is this.”

Doxtater-Wynn says people usually arrive “in waves” at the crafts sale.

“You know every other person, so it’s like half of it is visiting,” Doxtater-Wynn says. “Part of it is selling, but then there is this whole Christmas vibe and everybody is just in a good mood. It’s like a bunch of friends hanging out selling stuff for Christmas — it’s really cool.”

Tina Gardner, an artist from Eagle Lake, says the crafts sale “always goes so well” for her.

“I did really well again today, and I thank Christian for allowing me to have a table again and participate,” Gardner says. “I even had an offer from someone for me to do a painting that I had already sold. And everybody who comes by says how beautiful our artwork is.”

George Price, a wood carver from the Stó:lō Nation in B.C. who has been carving for 42 years, says he demonstrated some of his carving techniques and the different woods he uses during the crafts sale.

“I have yellow cedar here and western red cedar,” Price says. “It’s about 650 years old, the wood I am working with right now. This [red cedar] came from the tip of Vancouver Island, near Port Hardy, a village called Fort Rupert. And the yellow cedar came from the same area except the yellow cedar grows a lot higher than the red cedar. The big mask [here] is out of the same wood, 650-years-old.”

Price says the crafts sale was busy throughout the day.

“This room has been loud all day long,” Price says. “It’s way better turnout than last year.”

Audrey Deroy, an artist from Lac des Mille Lacs, says the crafts sale is a “great time to socialize.”

“I have quillwork — I have old designs that I’ve been working on ever since I was 18-years-old,” Deroy says. “I have porcupine quill sets, cedar rope, jewelry and I also have some finger weavings and stickers that my daughter has created.”

Diane Davis, an artist from Gull Bay, says the crafts sale has grown since she first attended five years ago.

“Sales are really good,” Davis says. “I have gun cases, moccasins, regalia — I do a lot of regalia for Pow Wows. We had some gauntlets and I sold those already.”

Darryl Big George, an artist from Big Island, says he sold out all of his hoodies with his woodland style art designs on the front.

“They were selling pretty well,” Big George says. “The bear [t-shirt] was a sellout and I still have a couple of wolves here. I sold out on my black t-shirts. The t-shirts and the hoodies are selling pretty well.”