Crafty ‘mini-market’ showcase for Indigenous micro-manufacturing

Moose hide is worth it’s weight in gold for some craftspeople.

While it might be stretch to equate the tanned skin cost of the largest member of the deer family (up to $17 per square foot), with the precious metal’s spot price (up to $6,000 per ounce), value is another matter.

Just ask Christine Dunbar, an Inuvialuit beadwork artist born and raised in Yellowknife.

“The hardest thing to source would be the moose hide, and I’ve actually had to order it from the States before, but I also get some hide from the territory as well,” said Dunbar, a full-time environmental science student. “Oh, yeah. It’s like, gold. People chase after hide when it’s available … it just sells so quickly. So anytime I see it available, I jump on it.”

As she sat at a vendor table at Thursday evening’s EntrepreNorth Mini Market at the Explorer Hotel, the woman behind Auntie Beading (@auntie.beading on Instagram) said sourcing the other key element for her craft is a bit easier.

“These are Charlotte Cut beads that I order from India,” she said. “They’re a really shiny, special kind of bead that I like to use. And I use a lot of 18-karat gold beads as well. Yes, I love gold, and I try to incorporate it into every pair of earrings that I make.”

Crafters needn’t always order from abroad, said Dunbar, noting Yellowknife’s Mahsicho store is a popular local source.

Dunbar was one of five artists to attend Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week last November with NWT Arts.

“It was very overwhelming. But it was really great too. I met famous Indigenous actors and actresses and influential people in the Indigenous world. So, yeah, it was really great.”

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But on Thursday, she was invited to take part in the ‘mini-market’ before the EntrepreNorth event Made in the North, celebrating Indigenous micro-manufacturing.

Some other vendors included: Alakan White (@thechunkysiksik); Morine Mantla (@beadwork.by.morine); and Roxanne Kotchilea (@tundra.beauty).

Behchokǫ̀’s Kotchilea was joined by her daughter, Azalea.

A full-time social worker and a mom, Kotchilea said she finds beading to be a meditative process for her.

“It’s self care, really. Beading is medicine. It really calms me, and I love what I do. It’s my creative outlet,” said the Tłı̨chǫ artist, noting she often finds inspiration walking with her daughter.

“We go for nature walks and we see little patterns, different colour combos, or flower patterns, and then she’ll kind of pick them out and say, ‘Take a photo,’ or she’ll pick leaves for me to trace out. So, we kind of do that together.”

Kotchilea said she also has designs handed down by her grandmother.

“I had my grandmother draw her patterns for me, and that’s what I’m using.”

Kotchilea said it can take a couple of hours for a more straightforward piece of jewelry, up to maybe six hours on a more complicated piece involving tufting.

EntrepreNorth’s Xina Cowan said the event was a “celebration of Northern indigenous entrepreneurship for entrepreneurs in the made-in-the-North, micro-Indigenous, manufacturing cohort, and other entrepreneurs from our network here in Yellowknife.”

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“It’s just a space for people to come and show off these sustainable products and crafts that they’ve made and showcase them to the Yellowknife community,” she said.

“Then following the market, we’ll have a bit of a soirée, where the entrepreneurs who are in the micro-manufacturing cohort get to take the mic and pitch their business to a friendly audience and let everybody know what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and the type of impact that they want to have in their community.”