This week, in the band office of the small community of Kitwanga, a Gitwangak elder Stem Gem Geepywx (Val Morgan) is teaching a small class of ten students how to make their own regalia. The focus is vest-making and her aim is to help her students learn the skills of vest-making with the added bonus of giving them an opportunity to share with their community where they come from and who their family is.
The Gitwangak hold feasts and celebrations like many other First Nations communities, but not everyone has regalia to wear, which can cause a sense of isolation or trepidation to enter the feast hall. She told CICK News “When we go to the feast, they can wear it [the vest], and it says who they are and what house they’re in […] They symbolize status, identity and a connection.”
Val’s vest-making workshop is taking place this week until Friday, January 17th when her community will have 10 new vests to showcase.
