Fashioning Indigenous Identity and Resistance
Important Textiles that mark Indigenous sovereignty on Turtle Island
Written by: Isabelle Sain, Communications Designer @ Threading Change
Editor: Sarah O’Rourke, Communications Manager @ Threading Change
[14-minute read]
Since first contact by settlers, Indigenous peoples, Trans, and 2spirit relatives have been made vulnerable through the appropriation of traditions and culture, and assimilation and forced displacement; both are continuous colonial strategies of extraction through cultural genocide.
This Truth and Reconciliation day (September 30th) we want to highlight textiles of importance to Indigenous people who live and create on Turtle Island (North America). On this day we are honouring the history and action led by Indigenous folks that are embedded into their textiles and craft. Their approaches and ways of creating are processes that many sustainable designers and creators have adopted and are inspired by. This post is showcasing from different tribes and traditions, it is an introduction to Indigenous craft and design, but is not all encompassing. These Indigenous creators highlight traditions and practices as their ancestors did “with a mutual respect for nature and the world that they live in.”
Indigenous artists and designers have been using fashion as a way to disrupt and resist fashion narratives. What these textiles share is a connection to tradition and resistance to a deeply harmful colonial fashion industry through reclaiming their heritage in a time when Indigenous traditions are continually appropriated while simultaneously indigenous people are left invisible, uncredited, and marginalized. Some contemporary Indigenous designers use processes and traditions that go back for centuries. We encourage you to support Native designers and Indigenous brands as opposed to Native-inspired designs or brands.
So much can be expressed by the way we dress and the jewelry we wear. Indigenous designers are weaving customs and traditions into their designs. For years, traditions and customs have created sustainable and beautiful textiles by Indigenous peoples to protect the Earth we inhabit today but also ground their knowledge, ways of life, and storytelling. Take some time today to learn about Indigenous, Inuit and Métis in Canada; this article is only a starting point to assist you on this journey of education.
Delores Churchhill and the Spruce-Root hat
Delores Churchill (she/her) is a Haida master weaver of baskets, hats, robes, and other regalia. She often uses materials like spruce root, cedar bark and wool. She creates everyday objects as well as ceremonial objects that carry beauty and cultural significance. She learned her craft and traditions from her mother and now passes the tradition down to younger generations. She continues to pass the knowledge and skills to reclaim and continue to raise questions around sacred knowledge, connection, and ownership.
A spruce-root hat made by Haida weaver Delores Churchill. The hat is a replica of one found with ancient remains. The original was found in 1999 in a melting glacier in a British Columbia park. She was given permission to study the hat and discovered that though it was mostly of Tlingit design, a variety of weaving techniques were used to make the Spruce root hat. She used the same techniques and material as the original hat. Churchill decided to add her own voice into her replica by adding an ermine pelt to the hat. This project gave her an opportunity to reclaim the practice and connect work hundreds of years old and revive an artifact into a piece that creates meaning for her community and creates a connection to their land and culture.
“Weaving connects us to the past and teaching passes the weaving art on to the future.”
— Delores Churchill
Raven’s Tail Journey of Evelyn Vanderhoop
Evelyn Vanderhoop (she/her) is a Pacific Northwest Coast textile weaver from the Haida Nation and she specializes in weaving the chief's robe of the Haida people. Raven's Tail (northern geometric weaving) and Naaxiin (Chilkat) are two techniques she teaches and weaves. She believes these robes are to be used to be in alignment with the spirits and that these weavings do not emphasize composition, but rather one creates the design to spotlight ancestral stories. The Raven’s Tail weaving holds the significance of it being a traditional robe passed on through generations.
It used to be called the northern Geometric weaving but it is now called the Raven Tail Weaving. Originally created out of the mountain goats wool, these weavings are creating the design to spotlight ancestral stories. The geometric patterns are telling stories as they are put into the robe so they can wear their identity. The colours and materials of the Raven’s Tail weaving is from the land. The white is from mountain goat, the yellow is from the Wolf Moss and the Grey is from charcoal or minerals, and Blue is from copper oxide and was a special colour that was usually for chiefs because of the difficulty to acquire it.
Molina Parker
Molina Parker (she/her) is a third generation, Oglala Sioux beader. As an artist and designer, Molina takes on tradition and gives nods to it’s history but as a contemporary beader she is taking on the craft of modernizing designs which has been passed on for centuries. The history and tradition is alive in her work, however she is reclaiming the craft by bringing in her own experiences and curiosity through the vivacity of the beadwork’s design, colour and imagery. To understand Molina’s work means acknowledging the years of tradition and teaching that has come before her and her work.
Jamie Okuma
Jamie Okuma (she/her) is Luiseno, Shoshone-Bannock, Wailaki, and Okinawan who is also an enrolled member of the La Jolla band of Indians in Southern California where she lives and works. Jaime creates and focuses on one-of-a-kind pieces that are made by her hands from the design process to the finishing details. Through her ready to wear collection and exhibit pieces she is commenting on authentically preserving the original intention of the footwear while also layering meaning on what footwear is today.
Jamie is addressing how pop culture simultaneously assimilates and appropriates Indigenous culture. Jaime is redefining the craft through shoes and accessories and is making a larger statement about their culture and how the world has perceived their craft. Jaime’s hand beaded work is placing emphasis on preserving the original intention of footwear by connecting with her heritage through fashion by using contemporary footwear and beading on to them with traditional techniques.
Ribbon Skirts and Geronimo Louie
Geronimo Louie (he/him) is is Chiricahua Apache and Navajo, based in Gallup, New Mexico. He is using ribbon work to express his Two-Spirit identity and to challenge the notion of traditional design. He was taught by his grandmother and started by creating pieces for himself because there was no one creating Two-spirit traditional women's outfits. Geronimo juxtaposes the traditional significance of the skirt with contemporary thought and symbolism. He is redefining the skirt and the ribbon work tradition in a way that showcases joy and pride as a queer, Two-Spirit person.
Many Indigenous tribes incorporate ribbon work in their designs, often found in powwow regalia or pieces made for special occasions. Ribbons are sewn in different ways often on skirts, dresses, and shirts. The way they compose the piece and the colours used have special significance and meaning attached to them relating to the person wearing the piece and the tribe they come from. They are attached differently depending on the tribe but they always carry a story.
Tania Larsson and Land Materials
Tania Larsson (she/her) uses materials that come from the land of the Canadian Arctic and works in harmony with the seasons. She operates her studio in Yellowknife, where she designs and hand fabricates jewelry made with land-based materials. Her mother supported her interest in beadwork by teaching her with the help of the community. She searched for jewelry that represented her and her Gwich’in culture, and had a hard time finding jewelry that represented her and her land. Tania’s work is tied to her local surroundings with an attention to material and meaning. Her work involves traditional and contemporary techniques and makes these adornments with her people in mind. Her intention behind her work is to make her people feel connected to their ancestors, land and culture.
She creates these pieces to continue the tradition’s lineage, her work is a conversation between tradition and a reclaiming of tradition that has been appropriated and ripped of it’s significance. She addresses the stripping of culture, specifically the traditional adornments that she creates so they can be revitalized and reclaimed within a contemporary fashion context.
Lynda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornelas, The Navajo Tapestry Weaver Sisters
These sisters have dedicated their weaving practice to reconnect the Navajos’ lost linkages to their weaving history. They work on decolonizing weaving traditions by addressing the binaries placed on the tradition within white settler colonial society. They address the gendering of the craft and hierarchy placed on the tradition perpetuated by white settler colonial scholars, curators, anthropologists, art dealers and collectors. Lynda Teller Pete (she/her) and Barbara Teller Ornelas (she/her) use their generational weaving practice and knowledge within their teaching to reconnect weaving traditions and create an understanding of weaving beyond the narrative in place. They acknowledge that through textile making and sharing there is a relationship between the universe, the elements, plants and the animals which extend kinships that breathe life into their weaving traditions. They create a connection to every step of the weaving process and bring an “understanding and appreciation from an underrepresented and underserved indigenous textile population.”
About the Author:
Isabelle is an artist whose work is an ongoing sensory experience that explores the relationships between body and space. Her work is grounded in establishing connections and events that define shared experiences to understand human interaction within the physical, political, social, and spiritual environment. Isabelle obtained her BFA in Textiles and Fashion at NSCAD University. Isabelle’s work has been exhibited in Toronto, Halifax, and Copenhagen. She has conducted a number of research projects investigating the future of fashion with KEA University, and has collaborated with several brands including Samsøe & Samsøe, and the Green Cannabis Co. In her art practice and experiences, she has created textile based design processes and solutions that establish connections to reinterpret textile production into a more environmentally and socially conscious industry. She is grounded by the preserving and passing of tradition while focusing her research on designs and systems, intersectional environmentalism, and climate justice.
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