A six-week course being offered around Canada is helping First Nations people reconnect with their heritage through the ancient art of making mukluks.
The Manitobah Mukluks Storyboot Project is being held in Montreal at McGill’s First People’s House and is funded by a non-profit organization call Treadright.
“I think it’s really fun to kind of connect to our culture,” said First People’s House coordinator Paige Isaac. “I think it strengthens our identities. It’s all around an overpowering activity to do. I’m so proud that I can say that I can make moccasins now.”
Several women taking the course said making the shoes is helping them connect to their ancestors.
“My grandma is a residential school survivor and a lot of our culture and traditions were lost,” said Charlotte Burns.
Tiffany Ashoona said she hopes to one day return to Nunavut, where her husband comes from, and live off the land.
“I’ve already learned how to tan moose hide and cariboo,” she said. “This is kind of the next step in being able to use every part.”
Instructor Marian Snow has been making mukluks for 30 years. She said each tribe has their own distinctive designs and patterns.
“You’re really able to tell where a person comes from just by looking at the different style of bead work and different styles of moccasins that we wear.”
Isaac said the mukluks are just one part of a larger attempt to connect a younger generation with what came before them.
“There’s a whole resurgence of Indigenous culture, really,” she said. “You feel it, you see it and people want to learn the language. They want to learn the culture. People want to get back as much as they can.”
