Hi, I'm Jenny! I'm the Sew & Sew Program Coordinator for I Love First Peoples. We are incredibly fortunate to partner with Janome Canada to bring sewing skills labs to remote Indigenous communities across the country.
Last May, we had the honour to visit the community of Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation on Treaty 6 Territory. Under the leadership of teacher Marcy Whitefish, Chief Ahtahkakoop School set up their Sew & Sew skills lab at the end of 2022. It has been incredible to follow their journey and see what the students have achieved in just a few months!
On May 17th, the students from Chief Ahtahkakoop School held a community fashion show. Josee, Iain and I from I Love First Peoples attended, along with Michael Smith, National Education Manager and Alan Ranney, Marketing Coordinator of Janome Canada. We were also joined by Summer and Cricket Testawich from the Bones of Crows film crew. Summer is a young actress who has a featured role in the film!
The fashion show was very well attended by the community and there was so much love and pride on the runway!
To get ready for the show, students learned how to cut and sew tote bags, ribbon skirts, ribbon shirts and jingle dresses as well as how to create appliqué.
We had a tour of the culture and sewing room from the community's incredibly talented and dedicated teacher Marcy Whitefish. Michael Smith, National Education Manager of Janome Canada, offered a morning demo for students to get to know their sewing machines, the Janome 2030QDC, a little better and shared some inside tips and tricks to help with future projects. We also covered important details about how to take care of the machines to make sure they can keep working for many years to come!
There was also a lot of last minute stitching and pressing happening in preparation for the evening fashion show under the watchful eye of community elders, who also lent a helping hand.
When youth have access to quality sewing equipment and a fabulous teacher, magic can truly happen! The sewing lab at Ahtahkakoop was dedicated to the late Fred Sasakamoose who was so dedicated to bringing opportunities to Indigenous youth.
Thank you to Principal Shaun Sasakamoose for supporting this program and for making space in your school. It's easy to see how much talent there is in Ahtahkakoop by all the beautiful garments created by the students. It's always such a job to visit communities in person and we look forward to seeing more work in the upcoming school year!
Big thanks to Alan Ranney from Janome Canada and Damon Little (and one of his awesome media students!) from Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation for the fabulous photos!
Jenny Ambrose
Sew & Sew Program Coordinator
I Love First Peoples
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