A THING OF BEAUTY
First Nations salon providing jobs and training
Savannah Pierre-weenie tints Josie Awasis’ eyebrows at Ka-miyosit Training Salon in the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs building in North Battleford. The teaching salon offers free esthetics and hairstyling training to First Nations women.
NORTH BATTLEFORD Battlefords First Nations have transformed a former police station into a salon, paving the way for young First Nations women to achieve financial success and personal well-being.
Ka-miyosit, meaning “The Beautiful One” in Cree, is based in the Atoskewin Success Centre. The Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs (BATC) founded the career centre in an effort to reduce the number of band members reliant on social services.
The salon is staffed by young women from the BATC’S seven member nations. About 10 to 14 women at a time receive free training in hair, nails, makeup and other beautician skills in exchange for bringing their talents to nearby reserves where they provide free spa days for residents who wouldn’t otherwise have access to them.
“All of our services are mobile because we try to address all the barriers,” esthetics mentor Ashley Weenie says. “Instead of them coming to us, we come to them.”
The idea for Ka-miyosit came when Kimberly Night, who runs Atoskewin’s Family Centre, asked Weenie to go to the centre and dye her hair while she was at work.
Weenie is what you’d call a natural entrepreneur. Since the sixth grade, she has been the one everyone calls when they need their hair, makeup and nails done before any special occasion. Nowadays, she does that as a full-time job.
As Night was getting her hair done, she thought: What if we taught this?
The BATC agreed it was a worthwhile investment and got on board.
The salon was built by students in Atoskewin’s construction program.
Since opening in the summer of 2019, its brick-and-mortar location, which offers up to a 60-percent discount on market rates for salon services, has been fully booked. Weenie estimates the salon has served more than 1,000 people.
Ka-miyosit’s founders say its services are as much about providing inner happiness as they are about creating outer beauty.
They describe how people’s eyes light up after they see the results of a good haircut or how their breathing relaxes while their nails are being painted.
“You can see it on people,” Weenie says. “They walk in when they’re in a bad mood and they leave and you can tell they feel better about themselves.”
Night says the salon’s services are a way for First Nations women in the area to take time for selfcare, an important part of personal health and healing.
“We tend to forget about ourselves. It has a lot of do with our history,” she explains. “Going through the traumas that we’ve gone through in our lives, we’re not in tune with our families. That’s why we’re hoping to touch on people’s lives here.”
Josie Awasis, one of the students in the program, started taking classes at Ka-miyosit after giving birth to her son.
Between postpartum depression and the stress of being a young mom, she says she didn’t have much time for self care.
Days when she can go into the salon and both pamper others and be pampered are days she can take for herself.
“It’s not just about looking good, it’s about feeling good,” she says. “When you feel good, you do good for others. When I have a bad day and I come here, somebody offers to do something for me and I just feel better.”
The hope is that the Ka-miyosit’s trainees can find employment as estheticians outside the salon. Esthetician jobs are in demand and can be lucrative, especially if students pursue an additional degree in hairstyling after their training is complete.
Awasis recently completed the hairstyling training program at North Battleford’s North West College, becoming the first person in her family to graduate from a post-secondary education program.
She says she wants to open a salon of her own one day to pass down to her children. She says she hopes finding her own footing will help her give them a leg up.
Ka-miyosit made that all possible for her, she says.
“You can’t take care of anybody if you don’t take care of yourself,” she says.
Atoskewin wasn’t always a place of such positivity. The centre used to be a police station and Night says many elders and community members associated it with imprisonment and discrimination. That has changed.
The thick, sloped floor is still there, but the walls are now painted the colours of the First Nation’s medicine wheel: a soft purple for the grandfather, an electric green for Mother Earth, a deep marine blue for the creator and pastel pink for the grandmother.
The words “Take Care of Yourself” are written on one wall in English and Cree.
Since opening last summer, the Ka-miyosit program has trained dozens of students who range in age from 18 to 45.
Many have kids and Night says the salon was deliberately built next to the family centre so mothers can leave their children in the care of elders while they train and work.
Night works at the family centre while her 18-year-old daughter Savannah Pierre-weenie learns esthetician skills next door.
A younger Pierre-weenie never thought cosmetology was her thing. In high school, she says, she preferred blowtorches and shop class to makeup brushes and studios. But she says she has enjoyed her time at Ka-miyosit.
“I’ve learned a lot about selfcare and self love. I wasn’t into a lot of that,” she said. “I was in a very bad point in my life. After coming to school here and working here with all the girls and my mom, it’s always such a good energy.”
She said she particularly enjoys practising her skills at the free spa days on neighbouring reserves.
“You always see them with a really big smile,” Pierre-weenie said. “They’re always really scared to get something done, so they’ll always make one of their friends do it first. Then they’ll get it, too.”
Ka-miyosit has been so successful that the estheticians have been travelling further afield recently. BATC communications director Alexis Christensen says staff and trainees at the salon have been invited to other reserves around the province. In January, they travelled 170 kilometres northwest to Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation after it declared a state of emergency in the wake of a young girl’s suicide.
In the face of such a crisis, a haircut or day of rest can seem like a very small gesture. But staff at Ka-miyosit say small relief can make a big difference.
“You don’t think you do much, but you actually do so much for people,” Pierre-weenie said.
I was in a very bad point in my life. After coming to school here and working here ... it’s always such a good energy.