Miywasin Moment: Reviving traditions shines spotlight on Saddleback

By JoLynn Parenteau on September 1, 2021.

Josie Saddleback dances for those who didn't come home.--SUBMITTED Photo Anushka Sharma, @m.a.d.h.a.t.t.e.r_lens

On the hottest Saturday in August, Josie Saddleback is ordering ice cream at Moose & Squirrel Artisan Village: haskap berry ice cream, cranberry sauce, sour gummy candy and whip cream, a special flavour concoction that week. But “The Crowley” sundae isn’t the only thing that is special at the Moose & Squirrel that day. Saddleback is there to dance, and raise awareness of Indigenous culture and her own enterprising spirit. Wearing dramatic traditional face paint and dressed in a handmade turquoise ribbon skirt, she is a commanding figure. “My Auntie Joanie from back home made me this skirt,” she says proudly.

Saddleback, 27, is from Samson Cree Nation and the community of MaskwacÃ®s, meaning “bear hills” in Cree, 70 kilometres south of Edmonton. She is the eldest sister of seven children and daughter of Kelly Saddleback, a fluent Cree speaker and traditional dancer who was a torch bearer in the 1988 Calgary Olympics. At the age of seven, her grandmother Rita made Saddleback her first jingle dress, and it was Saddleback’s father who first taught her to dance.

As an adult, she feels the call to carry on her ancestors’ traditions and be a role model for her siblings and peers, like her father Kelly. Having moved to Medicine Hat fourteen years ago, she now dances for urban audiences to bring attention to the beauty and resilience of Indigenous culture. “Dancing and singing is healing,” she says. “My dad’s older sisters were taken away to residential school, and there is intergenerational trauma on both sides of my family. Drug and alcohol abuse on reserve is a challenge for our youth. What we need is job creation. People are struggling.”

Saddleback’s healing journey is inspiring. Seven months sober herself, Saddleback says “it was time to be true to myself.” She has since seen success with a multi-faceted business. After studying business management, marketing and communications at Cypress College, she launched Saddleback Stones. With a green thumb and love of plants, Saddleback builds air plant terrariums and handcrafts crystal keychains and jewelry, which she touts as soothing and good for the soul. “Making jewelry is self-care for me, but the risk of a jewelry business has also paid off. It’s been a fun opportunity.”

She’s an industrious entrepreneur who takes her pop-up shop on the road. In July she was a vendor at the first annual Night Market at River Cree Resort and Casino, in west Edmonton on Enoch Cree Nation. Saddleback Stones was a big hit at the four-day event, which featured over seventy artisans and live music. Saddleback uses her business revenue to invest in more pieces of traditional dance regalia, which she feels is an investment in herself. “Since putting myself first, I’ve found good opportunities and open doors.”

This summer also saw the launch of Makeup By Josie Saddleback, offering her talents as a makeup artist for weddings, special events and photoshoots. Saddleback hopes to one day further her skills at Vancouver’s award-winning beauty school, the Blanche Macdonald Centre.

It all comes back to influencing the next generation, and being a visible, successful role model for Indigenous youth. “I like to be encouraging,” she says. “I had nothing handed to me, I grew up with not too much, but I’ve made something of myself. Go out and work for it, do it for yourself. I am living proof that if I can do it, you can too.”

Saddleback’s influence is growing as her entrepreneurship expands. The Copper Leaf CafÃ© on 3rd Street will soon be carrying her jewelry and terrariums, and she continues to sell at pop-up markets. Hatters can also see Saddleback modeling front and centre in an online campaign and bus advertisements just launched this week for Shop YXH. “I can’t believe I’m going to be on the side of a bus!” she exclaims in a video to her social media followers.

No matter how far her success will take her, Saddleback assures all her relations in Maskwacis that she’s still “Josie from A-Block”.