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Wawatay News
DECEMBER 20, 2012
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ᐧᐊᐧᐊᑌ ᐊᒋᒧᐧᐃᓇᐣ
Porcupine quills boxes worth thousands Rick Garrick Wawatay News
Wikwemikong’s Martina Osawamick has sold some porcupine quill boxes from her Zaawmiknaang craft shop for thousands of dollars. “The quill boxes range from $2,400 (up to) $3,000,” Osawamick said. “We sold one about a year ago and it’s worth like $10,000. It’s very intricate work and it’s very time consuming. It doesn’t take three months — it could take longer to make a big box like that. The one I sold (a year ago) was 16 inches across.” Osawamick said every part of the quill boxes she sells is natural except for the synthetic thread. “They have them in museums for $10,000 to $15,000,” Osawamick said. Although Osawamick sells a wide range of intricately designed crafts at her craft shop, which is located in Wikwemikong, she has also been learning how to make a
variety of simpler craftwork, such as keychains and lanyards, since she retired from working at Cambrian College. “It does take a lot of practice,” Osawamick said. “It’s like when you make fry bread, you have to have years and years of practice. But the beadwork — I’m just starting to do that.” Osawamick and her partner, a Navaho craftsman from the United States, usually travel along the powwow trail across North America to sell their wide range of traditional crafts. “We spend our time in Florida and that is when we do the work,” Osawamick said. “My partner does the medicine wheels and the dreamcatchers. But we have other relatives that do a lot of our work as well, so that is why we have quite a few things on our table here.” Osawamick said the silver and turquoise jewelry is from her partner’s home territory in the United States.
Teaching about diabetes through healthy living books Rick Garrick Wawatay News
Wikwemikong’s Mary Pheasant has written, illustrated and published a book featuring the traditional
perspective on Type 2 diabetes. “It’s all about learning about Type 2 diabetes and how to take care of ourselves,” Pheasant said. “It’s working with the wholistic aspect with Anishinabemowin thinking —
the native way of thinking.” Pheasant said the book contains everything she knows from 30 years of experience working in the nutrition and health care fields, written in the way she talks to and mentors
clients. Pheasant has also published another book with her husband on fetal alcohol syndrome and residential school impacts on the second generation. “His parents were very young
when they had him and they had no parenting skills,” Pheasant said. “So he was bounced around from foster home to foster home.” Pheasant said her husband’s happiest memories were the time he stayed with his maternal grandparents. “So that’s what carried him through all the chaos,” Pheasant said. Pheasant began painting at the age of 49 after her son suggested art as therapy for an extreme case of shingles she developed while taking care of her father, uncle and husband, who had hurt his back at the time. “I thought to myself that I
worked too hard to get where I am with all my education and training to throw it all away,” Pheasant said. “So that’s why I tried art and it was my healing.” She has since sold over 10,000 art cards featuring her unique style of painting. “When I was growing up I always did art until I was 19,” Pheasant said. “So it was 30 years before I went back to it, and I said that art took 30 years to develop.” Pheasant and her husband also had a variety of other arts and crafts for sale, including silkscreen images of her paintings and a variety of jewelry created by their daughter.
Wishing you the best of the Season! Holiday Hours: Closed from Mon. Dec. 24 to Wed. Dec. 26 Reopen on Thurs. Dec. 27 at 8:30 am Closed on Mon. Dec. 31 & Tues. Jan. 1/13
Season’s Greetings
I would like to extend to you my sincere best wishes this holiday season. May you celebrate the tradition of giving and the beauty of the season with family and friends. Sincerely,
Greg
Rickford MP-Kenora gregrickford.ca
Seasons Greetings from all of us to all of you!
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