Beading is healing

Beading has been an important part of my life—a practice through which I have learned skills, stories, and intergenerational wisdom. It has also carried me through many chapters of my personal healing journey.

When I offer beading workshops, I weave together technique, story-sharing, and diverse ways of knowing, being, and doing. These gatherings create space for healing, connection, and growth, inviting participants to engage in meaningful reflection and community care through their hands and hearts

I can offer insight into flat stitch, peyote stich, brick stich

I have been beading for over ten years and have experienced the growth opportunities, patience-learning opportunities, beading trials and celebrations which often come with beading. I view the act of beading as a way to engage in body-spirit-mind-emotions in a wholistic way of healing, learning, growth and belonging.

I can offer insight into flat stitch, peyote stitch, brick stitch.

Projects I have done workshops on in the past: Lanyards (peyote and wrap-around), Keychains, Flat-stitch, Pins/Broaches, Earrings (brick stitch).

Photo credits:

Holly Star Tait (Cree Artist, Photographer, Painter and OrganizeR)

Beading-As-reconciliation

When in our Bachelors and as leaders in the student movement, my friend Holly Star Tait (Cree) and myself collaborated to create a ‘Beading-As-Reconciliation’ workshop series with ‘Creations by Nations’. The workshop includes education, activities, and circle conversations on related topics such as: why we need reconciliation, where we are coming from, Indigenous resurgence, resistance and Indigenous futurisms

This workshop teaches the community how to bead a project of their choice - the project is flat-stick beaded on felt and is to be a story of reconciliation. At the end of the workshop we combine the beaded stories of reconciliation together to make a mosaic representing how the community walks in a good way.

Beading-Belonging-becoming

Within my Masters of Social Work Journey, I created and co-facilitated this workshop with another Ojibwa student.

This workshop centres our lived experiences which influence our journeys of wholeness, well-being, Identity and belonging. The workshop invites participants to join together in weekly or bi-weekly circles with one another for eight-to-twelve weeks to make connection, share stories, and walk in collective healing together.

The community members are able to choose a project of their choice and bead something which represents healing and belonging for them. This can either be in the form of a lanyard, earrings, keychain, broach or something similar. Community members share this projects and a story of how the time together supported their journey, according to how comfortable they feel of what to share

Photo Credit:

Holly Star Tait (Cree Artist, Photographer, Painter and Organizer)