For Kayla Solomon, sewing and crafting help her practice her culture and keep it alive.
Solomon, who lives in Moosonee, is a Moose Cree First Nation member.
Since she started sewing as a hobby in 2019, she has met and connected with many people.
She loves sharing her knowledge and culture with other people and it feels good sharing what you know, Solomon says.
“I’m passionate about learning new things when it comes to sewing. I’m still growing in knowledge, and I enjoy sharing it with others,” she says. “I believe it’s very important, as an Indigenous person, to keep our culture alive.”
Sewing gives her a sense of accomplishment, boosts her confidence and makes her feel good. It has also taught her patience.
Her work is mainly done with commercial moose hide and she always works with real fur from foxes, coyotes and rabbits. She also buys real beaver fur from a local trapper in the area.
One day, she wants to work with the real smoked home-tanned moose hide. Preparing and working with real hide comes with a lot of hard work and patience including skimming the hide, defleshing it and removing the hair, she says.
“In Aboriginal culture, nothing is ever wasted and you only harvest what you need,” Solomon says.
She has made crafts for people living and working in the area who come from diverse backgrounds. Her customers also include local community members and people from out of town.
Solomon comes from a large family of six siblings along with many nieces and nephews.
Her inspiration mainly comes from her late grandmother Emma Sutherland.
Sutherland was a well-known person and artist in the area whose crafts were always made with passion and patience. She was “the queen” of working with real moose hide, Solomon says.
Solomon wants to take after her grandmother making crafts that are pleasing to the eye.
“I just want to be like her. She was so good,” she says. “I want her teachings to be instilled in me. It makes me happy I’m still able to use the techniques of my grandmother because people have their own styles and techniques when they sew. My grandmother was a perfectionist when it came to making crafts.”
Solomon also worked with a classroom teacher at the Northern Lights Secondary School. She provided information and answered questions on how to make hats and mitts.
Due to the pandemic, she communicated with the teacher through emails, texts and phone calls.
It was a rewarding experience because some students really enjoyed sewing and they had a sense of accomplishment once they completed their work, Solomon says.
It makes her happy when people give her positive feedback, share photos of themselves wearing her craftwork and tell her how proud her grandmother would be if she were still alive.
In the future, Solomon plans to make more items like gloves, paluk mitts, mukluks and different kinds of beadwork like keychains. She is also working toward earning a degree in Indigenous Studies from Laurentian University.
“I’m continuing to grow and I’m continuing to do better in many areas of sewing. It makes me happy,” she says.
