The objective of the Manidoominensikaan – Beadwork as Medicine website is a repository of resources focusing on Indigenous beading from across Turtle Island. The act of beading encourages people to find moments of reflection, reclaim culture, practice self-care, and honour the past. Beadwork has the capacity to share stories while connecting to the past, present, and future allowing libraries and library workers to use the site for inspiration in building collections, creating programs, designing displays, and connecting with Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in person and virtually through social media.
WEBSITE: https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/manidoominensikaanbeadwork/home
Gail Driedger (she/her) is a mixed Algonquin Anishinaabekwe/settler. She lives and works on the unceded territory of the Algonquin, the traditional territory of the Nipissing First Nation, the territory of the Anishinabek and within the Lands protected by the Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850. She is an MLIS student at the University of Alberta and holds a combined Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and Sociology. To date she has worked in three of the four GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) sectors and currently works as a Library Technologist at the Harris Learning Library serving Nipissing University, Canadore College, and the general public. Gail’s Great-Grandmother was an Anishinaabemowin speaker and bead worker, and this site is designed to honour her memory.