Fort Qu'Appelle craft store helps Cree designer get his creative groove back
CBC
With more First Nations, Inuit and Métis people wanting to showcase their cultures through fashion, local arts and crafts stores are playing an important role, sometimes even directly supporting artists.
Manager Richard Desnomie's mom Maria opened Becky's Place in Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask., about 75 kilometres northeast of Regina, in 2018. Her goal was to provide a place to go for beadwork, ribbon skirt and powwow dance regalia supplies that was Indigenous-owned and local, rather than going to the city or ordering online.
"They're proud to be Indigenous and they want to show it off in fashion," said Desnomie, who is from Peepeekisis Cree Nation.
Desnomie took the store over in 2024, when his mom died suddenly from cancer.
He said his mom was worried in the first year of opening if the store was going to make it, but today they can't seem to keep up with orders and materials coming in for customers.
"People come to us because they feel more comfortable," said Desnomie.
Aspiring Cree designer Garth Asham, from Pasqua First Nation, works at the store. He went to school for fashion design in Vancouver and had some of his designs on the runway at London Fashion Week in 2019.
When the pandemic hit, it put a damper on his creativity.
"It took my inspiration and motivation away; I stopped designing," said Asham.
He decided to return home in 2021 and get back in his creative groove by being around his culture and community.
He decided to apply at Becky's Place.
"They really push me to be creative, whether it's something that can be displayed at a future collection or sold here at the store," said Asham.
Asham's older sister Emily Cyr, who is the front store manager, said now Garth gets the opportunity to pull out the sewing machine and make skirts while he is at the store, where she and the store manager encourage him to create.
"It's opened the door for him a lot," said Cyr.
