APTN article, April 11, 2021: ‘The spirit of the medicine will lead us back’: How Avis O’Brien is guiding Elders to weave their first cedar hats
This article form APTN, 'The spirit of the medicine will lead us back': How Avis O'Brien is guiding Elders to weave their first cedar hats, centres around Avis O'Brien, who is Haida and Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw. After a time of being disconnected from her Indigenous culture, even wanting little to do with her culture, in her words "I still embodied the impacts of our history", she learned to weave cedar from her sister, Meghann O'Brien. She speaks of how the experience of learning to weave began to remove the shame she had previously felt about her culture and she "became open to her cultural practices."
At the time the article was written, O'Brien had returned to her home territory of the Ligwildawx peoples and was working as a land-based cultural empowerment facilitator. She has been teaching We Wai Kai and We Wai Kum Elders to weave with cedar, specifically to weave cedar hats. She notes that this helps "'give back something that was taken from them throughout history.'" She also speaks of cedar having healing powers and that it is an essential part of life, from birth to death, for practical, artistic, and spiritual purposes.
Some of the Elders had never made something out of cedar before participating in O'Brien's workshop. One Elder was going to gift her first cedar hat to her grand-daughter. O'Brien has received gifts, such as smoked fish, from an Elder for teaching her how to weave. The author comments on the power of the exchanges between generations. O'Brien comments on how it is the medicine of cedar that is healing and helping do the intergenerational work.
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| Image: https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/the-spirit-of-the-medicine-will-lead-us-back-how-avis-obrien-is-guiding-elders-to-weave-their-first-cedar-hats/ |
Morning Sandra,
ReplyDeleteSometimes, it takes the right moment, time and opportunity for one to become ready to learn and in this case, I am happy to read that Meghann O'Brien was able to shift her mind from being ashamed to embracing her own Indigenous Cultural practices. Having family like her sister to share with her the art of weaving, and recognizing the purpose of making cedar hats both "spiritually" but "artistically" for it's "practical" use and power. I feel that being part of something, especially for students, gives them that security of not only self and identity, but a place of culture and community. Did you know one of the questions I asked students during lockdown when the pandemic first hit was "What did you do during lockdown?" most students responded how because they were trapped with their family in one house, it made them become closer. So imagine if those opportunities were created where students can move away from modern devices and embrace cultural practices with the family, how much appreciation and love they would get from knowing, being, creating and embracing the practices, cuisines, stories and art of one's culture.