Kaija Heitland and Indigenous Nouveau
Let me introduce myself.
TAANISII KIYAWOW! KAIJA HEITLAND DINISHIIKASHOON. AEN MICHIF NIYA, VANCOUVER ISLAND DOOSHCHIIN.
My name is Kaija Heitland and I am a Métis woman living on Vancouver Island, on the traditional lands of the Cowichan tribes. I belong to the Cowichan Valley Métis Community, though am originally from Northern Ontario. The Métis side of my family comes from the Hodgson and Denault lines. My other lineages are Sami, Scandinavian and German, which I also have a deep respect for and connection to.
In all my work, I focus on the need to reconnect to our traditional arts as a method for self-reclamation and strengthening our community bonds. These investigations into ourselves are essential to the preservation and evolution of Metis art and I focus on many different avenues including fabric, ceremonial items, moccasins, jewellery and regalia. I explore animal symbolism, plant medicine, and traditional food plants in my work, as these designs are an important part of our rich Métis culture of storytelling, and the story of our place in the culture of Indigenous British Columbia.
I began my company, Indigenous Nouveau, as a platform to help to facilitate a greater visibility for my community and the Métis who reside in British Columbia, to showcase our unique beadwork and quillwork patterns, arts culture and history. We are experiencing a renaissance in both our appreciation and our approach to our traditional arts and I find that truly exciting. We, as a culture, are waking up and feeling our strength and vitality and it is wonderful to see that expressed in the art and music being created presently.
A statement on my writing and the project:
I want to create something good with this.
Something for others to share in.
To connect to.
I do not want to claim anything for my own, or claim to represent the entire Métis community with this work. I believe that my work is bigger than myself. My hope with this project is that I can be a voice for the Métis who are looking for their roots and don’t know where to start. The ones that are disconnected or lost. Isolated or alone. The ones yearning for community. This work only represents those who connect to it.
I am an artist, and what I do is create art. I use art communication to connect people and sharing tools to encourage personal reclamation. I hope that some are empowered by it this work.
I do not discriminate with Métis of any area, region or lineage. I am not a gatekeeper. Those claimed by their own communities and culture do not need to look outside themselves, or to my opinion to validate what they know themselves to be. My only goal is inclusion.
Maarsii,
Kaija
“Nordic Flowers” Ribbon Skirt - Indigenous Nouveau, with in house designed fabric, 2021.
Why the Ribbon Skirt? My personal journey.
My first real Sweatlodge Ceremony when I was 14. Surrounded almost entirely by strangers and lost in search for my identity, I was invited into something I hadn’t been prepared for. I had never been to this kind of ceremony before: This hadn’t been part of my upbringing. While I had been brought up with other traditions, land-based practices and stories, Sweatlodge was not one of them.
I didn’t have a Ribbon Skirt of my own, and the Cree man (a now lifelong friend) who was pouring the sweat, gave me his ribbon blanket to pin around my waist to cover all the way to my ankles. He told me it was so that the Earth would recognize me, so that She would know who was touching her, but that out of respect, It must cover me all the way. I told him that I felt uncomfortable since I was “The least native person there.”, and he laughed and asked if I really thought that mattered.
“She knows who and what you are.”
The skirt, the smoke, the prayers, the protocol, the inclusion, the order in which we took our turns to pray, the rounds of grandfathers from the fire, all formalized something that had always been present in my life, but not tangible in this way.
I had always had a strong connection with nature but never considered our relationship as something so formal. Something with so many rules. But this was my introduction into ceremony. And there was beauty and connection there in that formality. Respect. Undersanding. Protocol.
I was fascinated by this piece of simple clothing that had transformed me into how I saw myself. How I felt about myself. And not how others saw me.
And this is why I make Ribbon Skirts for others. So that they can feel that connection.
Inclusion.
Reclaimation.
If you would like to learn more about Indigenous Nouveau, my fabrics and the projects I am currently working on please follow the link below. For a full biography, credentials, CV and information about the Métis in British Columbia.