Sash projects weave together school spirit, Métis culture

A Métis artist is taking her loom-weaving kit on the road to teach students about an iconic staple in her ancestors’ wardrobe and promote school spirit.

Casandra Woolever, the full-time creative behind Métis Branded, an apparel company in Winnipeg, has started working with schools this year to help them create custom sashes.

“I’m a little overwhelmed, but in a good way,” she said, reflecting on how many teachers have contacted her in recent weeks.

Woolever has shown more than 1,000 students her collection of sashes and how to use her floor loom since the start of the school year. She has 17 school visits scheduled in February.

Prior to each trip, she asks teachers to have their students reflect on their community’s values and pick up to five colours to represent them.

Woolever then strings up her 70-pound contraption at home, packs it up, pops it out and resets the tension on site.

“Everyone can add in a line or a pattern or an arrowhead into the sash, making it a part of their story and their stamp on the history in their schools,” Woolever said.

It’s an activity to bolster awareness about the many historic uses of sashes, from bandaging wounds to communicating one’s family identity, and instill pride in Métis students, she said.

Woolever, who was raised by a single and proud Ukrainian mom, discovered she had Red River Métis ancestry when she was in her 20s.

Her brother tracked down a detailed history of their paternal genealogy via Saint-Boniface Historical Society.

In 2015, in recognition of their ancestors’ involvement in the Hudson’s Bay Company, Woolever named her son Hudson. It was around that time she began immersing herself in Métis culture so she could teach him about it.

She’s since taught herself to create traditional capotes, long wrap-style wool coats, ribbon skirts and sashes.

One of her first sash projects sought to tell her family’s story. It includes HBC colours, as well as turquoise — a nod to her daughter’s birthstone.

For 19th-century voyageurs, sashes were akin to personal protective equipment, said Colin Mackie, director of heritage and education programs at Festival du Voyageur.

“Historically, for a voyageur who was working for a fur trade company, being issued a sash, a ceinture fléchée, is to protect them from injuries at work,” said Mackie, who’s been doing historical interpretation for 25 years.

“When they’re lifting heavy things, they’re doing work on a portage, you’d tie that around your waist super tight so you don’t get a hernia.”

“Métis people have always had a flare for fashion, so they were very beautiful.”

Métis researcher Laura Forsythe echoed those comments while noting residents also hand-wove their own personal accessories with their family colours.

These articles of clothing were used to store foodstuffs, ensure wearers had spare thread at the ready and mark “a catch” on a hunt, said Forsythe, an associate professor in the faculty of education at the University of Winnipeg.

“Métis people have always had a flare for fashion, so they were very beautiful,” she said, noting that colourful and intricate beadwork was on everything, from vests to shinguards to horse reins, in the 1800s.

Forsythe said she’s grateful that schools are inviting Métis community members to share contemporary stories and teachings.

Transcona’s St. Joseph the Worker School hosted Woolever recently.

Principal Nathan Polakoff said it’s invaluable for students to participate in hands-on activities that “bring history to life.”

Polakoff plans to frame the community-made sash and display it in a prominent place so it’s a conversation starter and reminder of educators’ role in reconciliation.

“It represents the school — but also, the importance of Indigenous culture in Manitoba schools today,” he said.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission called for mandatory, age-appropriate lessons on Indigenous peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada from kindergarten through to Grade 12.

In Manitoba, Grade 5 social studies is all about the people, cultures and conflicts that predated Canada’s existence as a country in 1867.

It’s an especially “pivotal time” because children are making sense of their personal identities at this age, said Lydia Sturby, a Grade 5 teacher who arranged for Woolever — a fellow member of the Manitoba Métis Federation — to visit her school.

St. Joseph the Worker’s sash is made of its official colours, blue and white.

While she’s well-versed in the significance of the sash she often wears to celebrate her cultural pride, Sturby noted she learned something new alongside her students.

She didn’t know Terry Fox had Métis ancestry, let alone that a special sash had been made in his honour.

Woolever’s lesson was a fitting way to kick off an upcoming unit about the fur trade and Métis culture, Sturby added.

Her students will make pea soup and learn basic Michif in the coming weeks.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca