Record turnout for Indigenous Knowledge Sharing Series in Winnipeg this summer

Hundreds gathered at The Forks this summer for the Indigenous knowledge sharing series, where artists and storytellers passed down traditions and history.

The weekly summer series, which ended on August 23rd, showcased different artistic creations from birch bark biting, beadwork, and Red River carts.

Saturday’s final session of the series featured birch bark biting artist, Pat Bruderer.

Bruderer, who comes from Churchill and belongs to Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, first saw birch bark biting art around 40 years ago. She was at the Friendship Centre in Thompson, Maniotba, where artist Angelique Merasty was displaying her birch bark art.

“I thought, wow, I could never do this,” said Bruderer. “And I was already in my 20s, and I’d never heard or seen it before.”

Bruderer has long since been teaching workshops on Indigenous traditions, including for youth in schools. It was around 30 years ago when birch bark biting came up in one of her classrooms.

“The kids asked me if I knew how to do birch bark biting, but I said, “No. But I’ll try”,” said Bruderer.

That’s when she gathered birch bark from firewood, and the journey to reclaim and share this art form began for her.

Bruderer said her process from gathering her birch wood — often from firewood but at times from standing trees — takes multiple steps. But at its heart, she always pays respect to her teachings and the land by offering tobacco.

“Tobacco is the first thing you would offer before you would start taking a birch,” she explained.

“It is a time for people to come together and get kind of one-on-one time with different indigenous artists,” said Lauren Wagn, who works with Parks Canada’s Manitoba field unit, who hosts the weekly series. “They’re coming and bringing a different array of knowledge and cultures to share.”

Wagn said this year has seen the most people coming to learn and engage with the artists and their crafts.

“All these art forms are coming from different cultures, and they really are these deeply personal mediums that people share history and they share knowledge,” said Wagn. “It’s just quite beautiful to see different art forms presented like that.”

Bruderer explained, “People used it for competitions, to see who could bite the nice pieces. It was used to record ceremonies and stories, and it was used to even do maps and different things like that.”

For Bruderer, she shares her art with the wider community so it isn’t lost. So future generations can carry on the knowledge that was, at one point, close to being erased.

“Because of colonization and residential school, slowly that started being lost because it was usually passed down in families,” she said.

The Saskatchewan artist said the art of birch bark biting teaches different skills like spatial awareness — key foundations to careers like architecture — so she encourages youth to give it a try.

“It’s funny, because I always say, “Well do you have teeth?” because as long as you have teeth, that is your main tool that you need to use for this process. So a long as you have teeth, you can do it.”