Speaker Series Launch
Recorded Saturday, March 6, 2021
Beading has been a monumental staple for Indigenous people for time immemorial. While the practice can be used as a way to show creative expression, beading patterns used to be a way to distinct different families and even nations from each other. Today, beading is a very important aspect of culture reclamation. Whether a master beader or a beginner, Indigenous people feel connected to their culture while beading knowing that this practice has been passed down for many generations.Responding to the challenges of assembling in groups during a global pandemic -- especially in First Nation communities, and during the winter months -- this speaker series addresses directly the current stresses of disconnection by organizing a community beading project that brings specifically people together virtually, spiritually, and energetically during a time of instability. Using beading as a metaphor, it aims to tie generations, communities, people, and all our relations in a myriad of ways.
Joan McLeod Shabogesic, “Josephine Beaucage was born in Beaucage Village, Nipissing Reserve and was a NBisiing Emnidoomnensged”
The story of Josephine Commanda Beaucage is important as an educator who was integral in cultural revitalization and preservation. Her work in revitalizing a wide range of cultural practices spanned for over a quarter of a century. She provided instruction on important cultural knowledge in the many Nation community halls as well as a lecturer at universities and colleges. She travelled to thirty-three Nation communities in Ontario and Quebec providing instruction in free hand beadwork, bead loom work, lacing, pattern design, fur dressing and hide tanning. Her students were our grandmothers, mothers, aunties, grandfathers and fathers and this knowledge has been handed down to their children. Many Indigenous artisans today owe their knowledge to that education Josephine provided a half a century ago.
Carrie Allison, Finding Roots in ThreadsArtist
Carrie Allison (MFA) will speak about her artistic practice and how it has helped her forge connections to the Indigenous beading community and ground her in her nêhiýaw/cree, Métis, and European identity. She will speak about growing up on the west coast, how she fell in love with beading and how she continues to develop projects that explore her identity and connect her to Mother Earth
