Strong connections to family inspire Saskatchewan Indigenous artists

Every bead that Shaenah Montgrand threads has been an opportunity for her to reconnect with her Plains Cree culture.

She launched her business, Spring Sweetgrass Woman, after her mother passed away from cancer in 2021.

“Getting back into my culture was very healing for me,” Montgrand said. “It helped me get through the grieving process.”

Montgrand and other artists sold their work at the Regina International Airport’s Indigenous Artisan Market on Wednesday.

Montgrand said she was working with her mother making ribbon skirts and beaded jewelry before she died. Her business was named Spring Sweetgrass Woman after Montgrand’s spirit name.

“Getting back into my culture helped me pull away from the lifestyle I was living and be more connected,” she said.

As a full-time student and mom, Montgrand said she was grateful to her aunt and her kookum who helped her perfect beading lanyards and sewing ribbon skirts.

“In our culture, the first year of the grieving process you aren’t supposed to cry for your loved one or look at their pictures,” she said.

She said the time she invested into beading and sewing helped her during her grieving, but the year presented some challenges as well.

“It was really hard being pregnant and going through labour without my mother there,” she said.

She said her beadwork sometimes includes a spirit bead, a bead that may look out of place within the larger pattern. The bead represents the fact that everything in creation is not perfect.

“That same thing goes for people as well,” she said. “We are so hard on ourselves and what others think of us. But we shouldn’t be, because nobody is made perfect in this world and that’s how the Creator made it.”

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Montgrand lives with her two-year-old son in Martensville. She said she intends to pass on her skills to her son while he’s still young.

“As soon as he’s able to thread a needle through a bead, he’s going to start beading,” she said with a laugh.

Brianna LaPlante, whose art includes drawing and painting, said her aunt inspired her to pursue art after she was wowed by a portrait her aunt drew of her in an agenda book.

“It was this realistic portrait of kindergarten me, and I was like ‘I want to do that,’” she explained.

LaPlante, who was also sharing her work at the Indigenous Artisan Market, said she often tries to incorporate a braid symbol into her artwork.

“You have your mind, your heart, and your spirit, and when you braid those together you have this physical manifestation of those intentions that you put into that object,” she said.

LaPlante said creating art is what she is meant to do.

“A lot of artists don’t get famous until they die, which is unfortunate, and I don’t think it’s going to happen to me,” she laughed. “But it’s just something that lives beyond myself, that impacts beyond myself.”