Empowering artistry Authentically Indigenous creations play vital role in cultural reclamation The Creators
By: AV Kitching Posted: 12:00 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 18, 2025

The Creators is a series that examines ideas, images and inspiration and the people behind them.

 

Ryleigh Todd-Moore has been very busy lately.

The 19-year-old, who uses they/them pronouns, is in their first year of an anthropology degree at the University of Winnipeg and has been occupied with exam prep the last few weeks.

Their creative work has taken a backseat, slotted in whenever there’s a moment to spare.

Now with the semester all wrapped up, Todd-Moore’s attention is back on practising their craft, creating beadworks, shell jewelry and ribbon skirts for their brand Littlest Kookum Beading

Todd-Moore’s foray into Indigenous artistry is in part due to the influence of their grandparents. They were taught to sew by their grandmother and their grandfather showed them how to work with leather.

Their desire to own a pair of dentalium shell earrings led them to making their own.

Sourced from a type of ocean mollusk, the shells resemble miniature elephant tusks and were previously used by Indigenous peoples as a form of currency. Nowadays they are worn as jewelry.

“I had wanted to have a pair for a long time but at the time, being in high school, I couldn’t quite afford them. An Instagram account whose work I loved, @dentalium_by_d, was selling some shells, so I used the money I had saved up to buy them,” Todd-Moore says.

Todd-Moore crafted a pair by pairing the shells with gifted leather from their father. The process sparked a desire to create more things.

Since then, in addition to earrings, Todd-Moore has designed chokers with the shells, combining tanned deer or moose leather with coloured glass and crystal beads, and silver charms to create multi-textured pieces.

Todd-Moore recently started working with moose antlers, provided by their father who hunts up north.

Todd-Moore saws the antlers to create earrings, drilling holes in them to attach fasteners. The pieces are polished before hardware is attached with needle-nose pliers. The process is relatively quick, taking just two hours.

Creating dentalium and beaded pieces however can take up to 10 hours. Working with the former is a labour-intensive process. Todd-Moore has to first polish and file each shell by hand before putting together a pair of earrings.

Todd-Moore also believes in taking breaks, particularily when feeling overwhelmed by stress or frustration.

“I don’t want that energy to be put into that piece. Growing up I was always taught that we have energy, and that we want to put ‘good energy’ into what we do, like good intentions. I want people to feel happy and confident, that good medicine, when they’re wearing a piece of jewelry or an item I’ve sewn,” they explain.

To keep things moving in the right direction, Todd-Moore has a process in place. There are days dedicated to just filing and polishing shells, before they are set aside to be assembled later.

Beaded items are created in the same way. Designs are sketched when ideas strike, then tucked away until Todd-Moore is able to dedicate the hours needed to choose the right bead colour and style for each design, before assembling.

But this is no production line of mere adornment. For Todd-Moore, creating Indigenous art is a form of resistance.

“It’s important to me. Our people have been creating art for years, way before settler contact, using medicines and the land and the animals around us to create clothing and items, whether for ceremony or daily life, with furs, leather, shells, antler and even quills,” Todd-Moore explains.

They are grateful to be able to maintain the cultural practice. The work is a way to pass on teachings that can help empower future generations.

“Indigenous artists selling Indigenous-made art is a form of reclamation. With a lot of art being ‘Indigenous-inspired’ it takes away from our communities, both profits and true understanding,” Todd-Moore says.

“Distributing authentic Indigenous-owned Indigenous work is truly empowering.”

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca