Anishinaabe artisans featured at Indigenous Christmas Market

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Whitefish River First Nation’s Susan Manitowabi, M’Chigeeng First Nation’s Marilyn Debassige, and Serpent River First Nation’s Jennifer Bissaillion enjoyed participating in the Aboriginal Artworks Group of Northern Ontario’s Indigenous Christmas Market on Dec. 13-14 in Thunder Bay. The annual market was held in both the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition’s Coliseum and Heritage buildings.

“I have some plaques of the Seven Grandfather Teachings, baby moccasins, I have dog bandanas, dream catchers, regalia items, belts, dance sticks, bells, skirts, broaches, bibs, I have some bracelets and some wooden bowls,” Manitowabi says, noting that a lot of her items were made by family members. “I just love visiting people and learning about the different communities around our area and outside our area.”

Manitowabi says she didn’t have time to make ash baskets for the Indigenous Christmas Market, noting that she learned how to make them over several summers with Charlotte Meawasige.

“We have to go into the woods to collect the black ash,” Manitowabi says. “Then we sit and we have to pound it, we keep pounding it until it comes off in strips, and once it’s in strips, you have to take those strips and you have to separate them out. The thicker ones are used for the base, the smaller ones are used for the weavers and then you can colour them and you can decorate them. How you fold your ash makes the intricate design on the ash basket.”

Debassige says she took the opportunity to visit some of her friends from Wapekeka in Northern Ontario at the Indigenous Christmas Market.

“I put my material together and my daughter joined me with her beadwork and saw the opportunity to vend, but most importantly to connect with the people from the north,” Debassige says, adding that materials include jackets she’s purchased from a variety of retail stores. “My jackets are denim and I like to dress them up to potentially what people might like, so they’re mostly with Indigenous art or the appliqué — for example, the Medicine Wheel on this jacket.”

Debassige says her daughter had a variety of beaded items, as well as cabs made out of birch bark for beading on to make earrings.

“For example, what she did is she took fabric of blueberries and she created an earring from that,” Debassige says. “People are so creative, I would have never thought of using fabric to make earrings.”

Bissaillion says she does embroidery on purses, boots, jackets, hoodies, and sweaters, as well as printing on t-shirts and sweatshirts.

“I do a lot of custom work for First Nations in and around Ontario, as well as out west,” Bissaillion says. “I do promotional work as well for First Nations.”

Bissaillion says she started doing crafts about 25 years ago, noting that her parents had been doing leather crafts, including mitts and moccasins.

“I started really small with doing some necklaces and I just kind of expanded from there,” Bissaillion says. “This craft show is amazing, we come up every year [and] love seeing the Anishinaabe people coming down from way up north. I’ve met a lot of friends and we look forward to coming up here every year.”

Bissaillion says her embroidered boots are very popular.

“I do Ojibwe florals on them,” Bissaillion says. “They’re one of the popular items that I can’t keep up with. I do doodems on the purses, a lot of Woodland florals.”