Jennifer Bowles with her Deadly Diva CREE-ations on display at Moose and Squirrel Artisan Village.--PHOTO COURTESY JOSIE SADDLEBACK
I’ve done it again. “These ones are really jazzy,” I say, justifying another pair of beaded earrings added to a growing collection. It’s International Youth Day in Kin Coulee Park, where I’ve been agonizing over choosing just one pair from the colourful jewelry display. I’ve picked up orange and rainbow lightning bolts. “I’ll wear them on Sept. 30 for Orange Shirt Day.”
I’m glad to part with the last of my spending money. Meeting local artisans and supporting their small businesses has been a heartwarming perk of being connected to Miywasin Friendship Centre. The orange lightning bolts are now a favourite pair, finely made by Deadly Diva CREE-ations owner, Jennifer Bowles.
Bowles remembers first learning to bead jewelry from fellow maker Brenda Mercer of White Horse Rider Co. during a visit to Miywasin Friendship Centre in 2019.
“It’s something I’m apparently really good at,” Bowles says shyly. “I didn’t grow up in my culture, but people say that it’s in my blood memory. Maybe I’ve done this before in another life.”
Originally from Swift Current, Bowles moved with her adoptive family to Medicine Hat as a young child.
“Back then, there was no friendship centre, no place you could go to learn to speak Cree,” Bowles laments about the lack of connection to her ancestry.
In 1998, ‘another life’ collided with Bowles, then in her 20s, when she was recognized by a stranger – a paternal cousin.
“You look just like your brother!” they exclaimed.
Two days later, Bowles met more of her newly discovered birth family.
“They threw me in the deep end,” she recalls. “I met my dad in Maple Creek, then we stopped at my grandma’s house.”
Bowles’ relatives had spread the word that she’d been found, and a large reception awaited her.
“When we got out to the reserve, the whole gymnasium was full of family and friends. I’d never seen so many Native people in my whole life,” she remembers. “I met brothers, nephews, aunties, uncles. All this time they’ve only been an hour-and-a-half away.”
Her budding flair for entrepreneurship is now reconnecting Bowles to a culture rich in artistry. That first beading lesson with Mercer sparked a jewelry-making hobby that grew into Bowles’ small business.
“Sometimes I get 10 ideas at once and I have to stay up all night to make them before I forget. I’m learning how to make bracelets, medicine bags, dreamcatchers, slowly figuring out what I’m really good at.”
With a name inspired by Indigenous pop culture and her own heritage, Deadly Diva CREE-ations recently launched on Facebook and Instagram, and Bowles has been selling at local pop-up markets. She recently sold her pieces at Moose and Squirrel Artisan Village alongside Josie Saddleback of Saddleback Stones.
“I’m so excited to have found another Cree maker,” said Saddleback.
Bowles is humbled by the community support Deadly Diva CREE-ations has received.
“It’s taken off to where I didn’t think it would.” She recalls recently seeing someone’s vacation photos: “I thought her earrings were really pretty, then realized I made them.”
A mother of two girls, aged 15 and 11, Bowles hopes to pass on her passion for beading to her daughters.
“I’d like them to learn something they can be proud of one day. I feel it’s important for them to know our culture, our heritage. I’ve had family members and friends who were residential school survivors. They weren’t allowed to learn what we’re doing here, or speak their language. So it’s nice that the girls are both a little bit interested in beading. But the youngest has got a shorter attention span,” Bowles laughs.
Beadwork has been woven into the rich fabric of Indigenous culture for hundreds of years. Artists like Bowles will encourage the next generation to take up the mantle.
JoLynn Parenteau is a Metis writer out of Miywasin Friendship Centre. Column feedback can be sent to jolynn.parenteau@gmail.com
