Revitalizing Indigenous languages in style
Designers are using their brand to advocate for cultural awareness
EDMONTON— When Brandi Morin’s kohkum (Cree for grandmother) passed away, her aunties were cleaning her house and found pieces of paper scattered throughout that had short stories and memories on them in their mother’s handwriting.
They found the elongated, cursive writings on scrap bits, papers, and even flyers. They compiled all her writings in a mini book, made photocopies, and gave them to all the children and grandchildren, including Morin.
Inspired by her kohkum, Morin, an Edmonton-based designer, decided to use her handwritten stories in her designs. This inspired a casual-wear line of shirts and leggings that aims to revitalize endangered Indigenous languages. Being Métis, Morin decided to call her line Mixed Blood Apparel.
She is just one of many Indigenous designers from Alberta who are taking the fashion world by storm, one culturally appropriate piece at a time.
The Indigenous fashion industry has seen a growth in the past couple years, with the country’s very first Indigenous fashion show, called Otahpiaaki, taking place in Calgary in 2016, followed by Vancouver in 2017, and Toronto this past summer. In Alberta, the fashion industry has become a movement, advocating for awareness of Indigenous culture, traditions and issues. Most Indigenous designers are using their labels and designs for advocacy, not just fashion. Morin’s line of shirts and leggings include solid colours with words, phrases, and sometimes even entire sentences, written in Cree.
“My vision for Mixed Blood Apparel was to create empowering contemporary fashion designs that celebrate Indigenous culture and help revitalize endangered Indigenous languages, and also to incorporate and uplift the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” she said.
“I really recognize that Indigenous languages are endangered. I wanted to find a way to make a difference in that area.”
Morin not only used her kohkum’s stories, but also Cree syllabics for words such as tawaw (meaning come in, you’re welcome) and ohen:ton (meaning free, informed, consent).
Morin’s grandmother, Ruth Petrin (née Chalifoux) belonged to the Michel First Nation and was sent to a residential school in St. Albert in 1945 after the death of her father. Due to her time at the school and assimilation later on, she had lost most of her language and spoke mostly in English.
However, in 2008 after a brief battle with stomach cancer, on her deathbed and surrounded by her children and grandchildren, it all came flooding back to her.
“When she was dying, all of her language came back to her and she started speaking fluently in Cree language and that’s all she was speaking in,” Morin recalled.
For years, Morin found solace in her writings, opening them every now and then to remember her kohkum, all the while also trying to figure out how she could honour her grandmother and keep her legacy alive.
“From there ... I had an idea to create a Mixed Blood Proud design, and it just incorporates the Cree language for proud, and it’s something for people to be aware, to be proud of their culture, to be proud of being mixed,” Morin said.
Next, she created Kohkum’s Story Leggings, which incorporate the writings her aunties found — in her grandmother’s handwriting.
Within a short period, Morin’s brand has grown and she has already done several fashion shows, including the third season of Otahpiaaki, the Indigenous fashion project based at Mount Royal University in Calgary, that took place Nov. 5 to Nov. 10.
While Morin is just starting out, LUXX Ready to Wear has already made a name for itself in the local fashion industry and is now looking at making waves across the border.
Derek Jagodzinsky, the Cree designer behind LUXX, has been in the industry since 2011, although he didn’t focus on Indigenous fashion until 2014.
“I felt like it was time for me to do more Indigenous fashion because I thought it was lacking, because there was lots more cultural appropriation than appreciation,” the 34year-old said.
“I feel like Indigenous designs coming from Indigenous designers, you know it has a different feel.”
Jagodzinsky’s designs feature a modern, edgy look, with Indigenous words, symbols and motifs woven in. The designs have been presented at events such as Western Canada Fashion Week. He has also travelled across North America with Indigenous designers as a part of an exhibit called Native Fashion Now that focused on showcasing the different nations across the U.S. and Canada, and showed how different each nation is.
Jagodzinsky also collaborated with Métis visual artist Christi Belcourt and used her Water is Life activism prints that feature bold, mostly black and white Indigenous imagery with the words “water is sacred” and “water is life” for shirts and jackets at Otahpiaaki.