Walking Our Path, After The First Few Steps: Our Arts As The Path
The Women’s Arts Intensive is a series of online and in person programs to support building our bundles as artists while deepening our connection to the land and our culture.
A letter to you –
“This program was designed for women who have taken their first steps in reclaiming our culture and traditions, through our Metis Women’s Program or other personal work as a place for them to continue to build their bundles of skills, teachings, and connection to the land through our arts.
I have heard you. At the end of our 12 month Metis Women’s Program, I hear consistently…Can we stay? Can we continue to learn. I am excited to now say…YES.
I know the hunger to not only hear the traditions that were once the backbone and background to life in our nation, but to LIVE them.
And, you’ve started down that path. Chances are you have…
- Learned to bead
- Sewn some items. Moccasins maybe. Perhaps a ribbon skirt
- Learned about the importance of decolonizing our understanding of gender and who we are within our communities
- Begun to connect with our foods
- Attended a ceremony for the first time and found yourself in love with the Red Road
- Learned to introduce yourself in Michif
- Found friendship and kinship with others along the way
But you aren’t quite ready to walk away from spaces that are nurturing your growth, together as community.
And likely you are feeling…there must be more. Can I continue to learn to bring these traditionss into my life? How con I connect to and contribute to my community? What is my place in this community as a Metis woman, and also…as someone commited to reclaiming my culture for my family and future generations?
Culture is taught gradually over time by those who are immersed in it. Normally you would be taught as a child by your parents and grandparents, and every interaction with you community beyond your family would reinforce that sense of belonging.
That sacred story of who we are is begining to be clearer to you…but you need time and repetion to have it imprint so fully on every part of you.
Like for so many others, our arts are a beautiful doorway for us to explore these connections, traditions, and wahkootowin…kinship.
Tying the new skills you’ve gained to the patterns, history and beauty of our nation takes practice. It takes a ritual of devotion to that practice. It takes deep reflection on the teachings embedded in our arts and how they help us see our place within creation.
This is what I invite you to join us for…for building that sacred connection through arts, together, to the land around us.
But even more than this, it is my hope that these rituals, traditions, skills, and this devotion will be the firm foundation from which you can help build up our beautiful nation. It isn’t just about us as individuals…this path we are on. It’s about ensuring these traditions are brought home…firmly planted in the hearts of our kin.
For this reason, this program begins with devotion, ritual and connection, and grows into the vital and sacred role of sharing as Nikawis, aunties…little mothers, to those around us who need those same first steps as you’ve taken.
I know it’s you who will bring these beautiful traditions into your life in such a deep way that you can be the strong, beautiful, rooted matriarchs of our commuities.
And so I say to you, Taanishi, Tawaw. Hello and welcome, there is space for you here.”
– Natalie Pepin
What is the Women’s Arts Intensive?
The Women’s Arts Intensive is a series of advanced arts programs that focus on the practice of culture through our material arts.
We currently offer the following Intensive Arts Cohorts…
- Hide tanning
- Birch bark baskets
- Beaded Wall Pockets
- Fire Bags
- Mitas (Leggings)
Each arts intensive cohort has a duration of 2-6 months.
These arts intensive will meet every second week online as we move through the intensive, in order to establish strong traditions of arts excellence in our daily lives, and also, to allow the surrounding traditions of connection to the land to be at the forefront of our lives also.
Is this program for you?
This program is a good fit for you if…
- You have graduated from our Metis Women’s Program OR have learned our basic arts, begun your journey of reclaiming traditional teachings, and are able to outline that path you’ve walked
- You are Metis, or from a related nation (Cree, Dene or Saulteaux). Other nations are welcome, however, our teachings may not be quite so similar as those nations listed here.
- You are ready to learn, have access to a phone or computer and have access to the internet
- You are searching for traditional teachings and want to experience your culture in your daily life
- You are financially able. I know this isn’t going to be the case for everyone. If you’d like to learn, but simply can’t afford it, I will share some thoughts for you further down.
- You have time to work on your arts project (a minimum of 3 hours per week)
This program is not for you if…
- You have an elder and community in your life who can teach you all of these things. If this is the case, I HIGHLY encourage you to learn from them.
- You are not able to interact with your circle. This program will require commitment and daily practice for a minimum of 30 minutes.
- You’re in a dire situation. If you are currently leaving an abusive relationship, facing losing your home, or unable to financially support yourself, please focus on these. Your health and wellbeing comes first.
It’s Feeling Like A Fit
If what you’ve read so far feels like a good fit, I encourage you to join us. I KNOW there will be so much of value for you.
Registering
Please click the links below learn more about each cohort.
You can register at each of the buttons below.
Cost
Each Arts Intensive Cohort has its own fees. Please click the different Intensive Cohort descriptions below to learn more about fees.
Course fees support our ongoing development of our culture camp near Athabasca.
This fee includes all of your classes, and everything listed above. This fee doesn’t include materials for making your items. However, if you’d like, we have kits with those materials available.
What if I can’t afford this right now?
We know that not everyone will be able to afford this program. There are bills to pay, groceries to buy, rent to pay. We have all been in that place. There is NO shame in this. We have several suggestions for you if this is the case…
1) Although this program doesn’t have a funder that allows us to offer grants, we would love to have you join us for our FREE 6 Week Welcome program to learn more about the Metis culture, our foods, our language and our traditions.
2) Take advantage of our payment program to divide up the costs over several payments (see below).
3) In the future, we will have individual classes to learn some of these same skills available. Although these classes don’t cover cultural content in the same ways, they are definitely a great place to learn our traditional arts. You can find a list of individual classes here.
4) We host other free programs like the Metis Book Club. In this group we read books written by Metis authors or about the Metis nation. Many of these books will be available at your local library. We would love to have you join us!
Do you offer payment programs?
Yes! Email natalie@meetingmyancestors.com and ask to be set up with a payment program to access this program. Our payment programs allow you to divide the fee up into 2 or 4 payments. The first 1 or 2 payments are required before the first day of the program (depending on how many payments the fee is divided into).
Why aren’t your programs free?
All programs that are hosted by organizations have costs. Whether its the classroom or building used for teaching, materials, or having instructors costs covered. Online programs have fees to pay in order to cover the websites, admin, and the online platform used for classes (these all have costs) and having instructors costs covered. Some organizations have funding to cover these costs. Some don’t. We actively seek funders to cover the costs of offering programs and to be able to offer grants. However, this isn’t currently available.