New workshop series brings traditional knowledge to downtown Whitehorse

The Northern Cultural Expressions Society (NCES) has begun a workshop series to promote Indigenous artists and create skill-building opportunities for Whitehorse residents. 

The non-profit is founded on the idea that artistic expression can be a tool for Indigenous youth to recover from the impacts of colonization. 

Hannah Silverfox-Belcher is a workshop coordinator for the organization.

"The intention for the workshops is to help people express their artistic abilities as well as learn new cultural skills," Silverfox-Belcher said. 

"Over the next few months we'll be holding workshops where we'll have fish tanning, sewing with fish leather, cedar weaving, wire work for jewelry." 

While the workshops have a fee, the organization sponsors spots for those who can't afford to attend. 

The sessions are being held on the ground floor of the Cornerstone Community Building, a supported and affordable housing facility in downtown Whitehorse. 

Doug Smarch was in Whitehorse on Monday, leading the last session in a six-part workshop series on drum-making. 

Smarch is an award-winning artist from the Teslin Inland Tlingit First Nation. He has been working with stone, bone and wood since he was a child, learning from family and community artisans. His works are now in museums all over the world, from Switzerland to Japan. 

"Doug's an amazing teacher, he made it really easy to follow along," said Jasmine Colomby, one of the workshop participants. 

For Smarch, passing on skills benefits both the student and the teacher. 

"When I come and teach, I also learn," he said. "I let them know that the struggles they've had, I've had. I let them know that the mistake you made, I've made it so many times. That frustration you're feeling? I've been there. That's the comfort."

Maria Rose Sikyea is a Dene artisan and cultural skills facilitator. She led sessions from October 20 to 23 on quill bow loom weaving. 

Sikyea has been facilitating workshops for over 10 years. She regularly leads sessions on caribou and moosehair tufting, porcupine quill flat stitch sewing, the practice of making beads from the land, and herbology walks. 

"I started off with hide tanning small game," she said. "One of my first workshops was hide tanning a rabbit skin with tools you can find in your own kitchen." 

Quill bow weaving is a newer skill for Sikyea. To weave a quill bow, a loom is made from a bent willow branch, and softened porcupine quills are woven between strands of sinew strung along the branch. 

The art form has been in Sikyea's family for generations. 

"I have two great grandmothers that were very avid and very good porcupine quillers," she said. 

Through the impacts of colonization, residential schools, and many family members lost to the Spanish Influenza pandemic, that knowledge was lost within Sikyea's family. But that didn't stop her. 

Instead, she taught herself from a video of Elder Madeline Canadian, and later, from Aresene Fabian Betsidea at the summer 2023 Adáka gathering in Délı̨nę, N.WT. 

"Because of residential school, a lot of our ways were taken away from us, along with our ambition, our inspiration and our confidence," she said. 

"I'm very passionate about sharing knowledge and keeping our Dene ways and knowledge thriving into the future.

"I've been picking up the pieces to keep that line from being broken for my family. I want to be able to offer them something I didn't have."

Nikita Sawrenko-Bailey was one of the quill workshop participants. She said NCES workshops help her maintain a connection with home. 

"I've lived here for ten years and I've never seen something like this offered before," she said. 

"I don't live at home on my ancestral territories, so I try to keep up with cultural revitalization whenever I can, and these workshops are really accessible and affordable.

"My father was a carver, and I try to keep following in his tracks by coming to these workshops."

The next workshop series will begin on Nov. 3 at Northern Cultural Expression Society's new location at 704 Main Street in Whitehorse. Doug Smarch will be teaching participants how to sew drum bags. 

"These traditions came from our ancestors," said Sikyea. "For example, I've been researching that there hasn't been a babiche bag made with a full quilled panel in the 21st century. That is one of my goals for 2024, to make one just like my great-grandmother made.

"It will be like a prayer or a love song to those who have passed before."