An Indigenous art form is stronger than ever despite colonizers’ best efforts
Art | Gregory Beatty | May 12, 2022
Radical Stitch
MacKenzie Art Gallery
Until Aug. 28
Beading as a radical act? Seems unlikely, doesn’t it? Yet under the Indian Act the Indigenous cultural tradition of beading was actually outlawed in Canada for over six decades.
More on that later. First, a bit about Radical Stitch.
Curated by Michelle LaVallee, Sherry Farrell Racette and Cathy Mattes, Radical Stitch features over 100 beaded and bead-themed artworks by 48 Indigenous artists from Turtle Island (a.k.a. Canada and the United States). Familiar names include Ruth Cuthand, Catherine Blackburn, Shelley Niro, Dana Claxton, Katherine Boyer and Amy Malbeuf.
Beading, as a cultural tradition, dates back many thousands of years. Pre-contact, Indigenous beaders from different nations relied mostly on local materials such as shells, soapstone, berry seeds and bone. But nations traded regularly with each other, so beads, tools, techniques and finished items from far-flung areas got around.
Post contact, so-called “trade beads” made of ceramic and glass became available. Needles, thimbles and thread were other popular trade goods.
While Radical Stitch references that history, the show is more than an homage to the past. It includes media such as video, photography, painting and installation, and is very much a contemporary art show.
In a gallery interview with the three curators before the opening, LaVallee noted that the exhibition’s roots date back to 2007. That’s when she joined the MacKenzie as a curator. She held that position until 2017, when she became director of the Indigenous Art Centre (Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada) in Gatineau, Quebec.
“I pitched the idea of doing a contemporary beadwork show as early as my interview,” said LaVallee. “Right before I left Regina, it made it on the books and Sherry and Cathy were added as co-curators, which I think worked very well because we all bring different [strengths] to the show.”
LaVallee is Anishinaabe (Ojibway) and grew up in northern Ontario. In February, she was appointed director of the newly formed Department of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization at the National Gallery in Ottawa.
Mattes is studying for her PhD at the University of Manitoba. She also teaches at the University of Winnipeg and is Michif, so has a good grounding in the history and tradition of Métis beadwork.
In 1991, Farrell Racette published an illustrated social history of the Métis called The Flower Beadwork People. She currently teaches visual art at University of Regina, and previously spent a year in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which gave her a familiarity with Indigenous beaders south of the border.
“I had the privilege of living in Santa Fe for a year, and I used to go the Indian Market pretty regularly and met a lot of artists,” said Farrell Racette. “Before Covid, the three of us went down to the market, because that’s the most convenient way of seeing the best contemporary beadwork in the U.S.”
Outside of the Santa Fe trip, the curators, because of Covid, did most of their research and recruitment of artists online. That wasn’t the only Covid challenge. Most museums aren’t lending out work from their collections right now, so pieces that might have been on the curators’ wishlist were unavailable.
“We wanted to recognize cross-border influences in Radical Stitch,” LaVallee said. “But it was never meant to be an all-encompassing survey. There are artists who are not included who we maybe would have liked to have. But we still ended up getting a good range of nations from all corners of North America.”
Radical Act
So why was beading illegal under the Indian Act? It stemmed from an 1884 amendment to the 1876 act that sought to stamp out traditional Indigenous celebrations such as the Potlatch, Sundance and Round Dance.
“Part of that was the creation of regalia,” said Farrell Racette. “In Saskatchewan, I’ve found numerous references to the idea of the dancing set, and how it was a real threat to the ‘good’ being done at residential schools, as when people came back from the schools, one way to pull them back into the community was through dance and making regalia. It was powerful resistance.”
Succeeding generations of Indigenous artists also encountered resistance when they tried to introduce beading into their art practice, said Farrell Racette. She recalled a conversation with Ruth Cuthand (who has four beadworks, based on brain scans of people suffering from depression and anxiety, in the show).
“Ruth and I were talking about how we had a practice of making,” said Farrell Racette. “I can make moccasins and do all that stuff, and then I painted. It was like I had these two separate things. It was a while before artists started putting them together.
“One thing that’s cool about Radical Stitch is we have artists who are community taught, and then their work evolved,” Farrell Racette added. “Then we have people who were going to art school, and they picked up beads as a way of reconnecting and revitalizing, and in some ways decolonizing, what they were taught in art school. These younger artists are kicking back at stereotypes about beading and instead moving things forward.”
The gender split in Radical Stitch is roughly 4:1 in favour of women, which is probably a fair reflection of a historical reality that women did most of the beading.
“When I imagine ancestor artists, it seems that the majority were women,” said Mattes. “But I don’t always assume gender because there were also those who identified as women, or who were two-spirited or gender variant as well.”
Men sometimes beaded too, said Farrell Racette.
“One of the stories about Gabriel Dumont is that before he took off to Montana he made moccasins for some of the children who had been separated from their families. There’s always been men who have beaded, and now they are some of the best beaders.”
While Indigenous nations traded beads and beadwork with each other, they still had distinct styles and motifs that served as powerful expressions of their cultural identity.
“Beadwork is embedded within Indigenous knowledge systems,” Mattes said. “Some nations would use different colours or have more geometric designs, while others might have floral motifs. Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) beadwork is very layered and three-dimensional — really tactile. There’s also the landscape, where people are from, and how they’re beading the land.”
Cultural touchstones are present here too, said Farrell Racette.
“On Jamie Okuma’s boots, for instance, there’s a rattlesnake. She’s from the deserts of California. But it’s very abstract and subtle. Will Wilson is Diné Navajo, so his beadwork honours a rug that his grandmother made.”
Other traditional forms referenced in the exhibition include cradleboards, moccasins, pow wow regalia and jewelry. But there’s a contemporary flare to the work that packs a real Wow! punch.
Not just fun to look at, the artworks also give viewers plenty to think about. Covid, not surprisingly, is one topic that artists address in the exhibition. Politics, and the multi-faceted struggle of Indigenous people for justice and equality is another.
“We have some pieces inspired by things like land and water-based activism, and the importance of food sovereignty,” said Farrell Racette. “There are themes like that that are really important in the community now.”
While some serious (and sad) themes are addressed in the exhibition, there’s also a strong sense of whimsy, said LaVallee.
“We have Sponge Bob Square Pants and little beaded superheroes like Black Widow and Black Panther, or Audie Murray’s beaded toilet paper [Covid, remember?]. Then there are artists who are referencing wampum but using metal. And even pixels with some of the video work, where there’s the idea of pixel as bead. It’s quite amazing to see what people are creating.”
Once Radical Stitch closes at the MacKenzie, the show is expected to tour internationally. A catalogue will also be published. And on June 25, the MacKenzie hosts the day-long Beading Together: Radical Stitch Symposium (registration is full, but the symposium can be viewed online).
“We all bought t-shirts that say Beads Over Diamonds,” Farrell Racette laughed. “Right now, I would say beading, along with film and performance art, are the most exciting areas of Indigenous art. The show gestures to the future because so many people are beading.”