Indigenous artists create wearable art, share knowledge at gallery workshops

Throughout January, Sparrow Artspace is hosting 11 Indigenous artists who mainly use materials harvested from the land to create wearable art.

Sarah Neill, who runs the gallery and organized the workshops, says there's a waiting list to attend.

"It's wonderful to have these artists share their art form," she said.

"They've really embraced what Sparrow Artspace is all about: creativity, community and collaboration. They're all learning from each other and they're sharing their passion and their skills with the public, which is amazing."

Sarah Whalen-Lunn, who moved to Calgary from Alaska a year ago and is embracing the Indigenous art community here, is creating a felt shawl with a little help from people she knows.

"I asked all the people that I'm friends with on Facebook to send me photos of their eyes," she said.

"I've been working on felting all of the eyes of my friends and loved ones and then it will eventually turn into a shawl."

Whalen-Lunn is happy to have been invited to take part in the workshops and says much of her art is meant to be worn.

"Being Inuit, we have the belief that everything holds spirit," she said.

"The things that I make are meant to be used, they're meant to be worn, they're meant to be handled, they're meant to carry their spirit into whatever it is that we're doing, right? So it's all part of that same existence, so for me, that's just part of the process of making art."

Riel Starr, who is making a traditional fire bag decorated with beads, grew up going to museums and visiting archives.

Starr is referencing a traditional fire bag found on the Gabriel Dumont Institute website for this piece.

"But I wanted to talk about contemporary queerness," Starr said.

"I have this symbol of a pansy with different Métis motifs and accents that I've incorporated into a way of expressing transsexuality and queerness."

Danielle Piper, who is using coloured porcupine quills and weaving them into birch bark to create designs, says it's a traditional art form that goes back more generations than she can count.

She's also keen on making her own leather from elk and fish.

She uses fish scales in some of her artwork as well.

"I think people are kind of intimidated by some of these materials and they do feel sometimes a little put off by the fact that they are from animals," she said.

"But you can really feel and connect to that."

Piper says that connection is valuable because modern culture has become disconnected from traditional materials.

"So to feel this connected to materials, working with these animals, is a very different experience for people," she said.

"But I think it helps put into perspective a lot of the issues on sustainability that we're facing."

"I think people are learning that we have very old and important and sustainable ways to use these materials," Starr said.

"And to process and harvest them."

Neill says seeing the artists in action will give people a better understanding of the work and talent needed to create wearable art.

"Maybe you want to buy a pair of earrings, for example," she said.

"Then you understand how many hours (it takes to make them) and how many years it takes to actually build up those skills as well."

You can learn more about the workshops at https://www.sparrowartspace.com/december-2023january-2024.