High school students use Métis fingerweaving to support a good cause

Students at St. James Catholic High School in Guelph are learning Métis fingerweaving ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sep. 30, while also giving back to the community.

Students taking NAC10, a Grade 9 visual arts course, have been focusing on First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures. In this part of the program, they used fingerweaving techniques to create bracelets. Students that identify as Indigenous were also invited to participate.

Fingerweaving is a traditional skill used to create the Métis Sash, a significant symbol of heritage that often represents special occasions, family ties, as well as other practical uses.

The bracelets will be sold at St. James Catholic High Schoolon Sep. 30.

“Those bracelets will then go to fund a little portion of Geronimo's Dream, and just to give back,” said teacher Katrina Musselman.

Geronimo Henry spent more than a decade at the Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford. His campaign, Geronimo’s Dream, aims to build a monument to all residential school survivors and those that never made it out.

Students taking the high school course learned the fingerweaving technique from Alicia Hamilton, a member of the Red River Métis Community and a Métis community partner with the Wellington Catholic District School Board.

She said it’s important to share Indigenous traditions.

“All those things were lost when our culture had to hide for so long and secrets were kept, you lose all those bits,” Hamilton explained. “To see the new generation carrying on these cultural skills and arts, and things like that, is so exciting to me, because it's part of Canada's history. I think it's wonderful that it's not just something of the past.”

She’s also encouraged to see more schools teaching Indigenous history.

"When I was growing up we didn't learn hardly anything,” Hamilton said. “It's really exciting that learning about Canada's First Peoples is part of the curriculum and that it's becoming more and more just part of what schools are doing. And through the year, not just one time, one day.”

Students also enjoyed learning a new artistic skill.

“It's super awesome, especially learning about a new culture and getting to know something that I've never done before, as well as knowing that I can teach others how to do it,” said Grade 9 student Maliya Pigozzo.

“It's a really cool experience because we can find out how to do something that's new and something that really relates to our history,” added Treisha Villahermosa, the president of the Social Justice Council at St. James Catholic High School.

"I think it's really important to remind ourselves of the past and how the Indigenous and the Mohawk, and everybody else, suffered through all of that," said Grade 9 student Luke Zettel.

"I just think that it's really good what we're doing here today,” Ryder Cantwell, another Grade 9 student, said.