For Saskatoon artist Vanessa Hyggen, the beads on her mask seem like armour.
Hyggen, who is Cree, is among the artists in Saskatchewan applying traditional beadwork to pandemic masks. She says the artwork elevates the masks into sources of power and strength.
“There’s a fierceness to these masks,” she said. “We are fighting for our future and what our future will look like. How is it going to change from this?”
When the pandemic hit and more people started wearing masks, Hyggen knew it was only a matter of time before bead artists started applying their craft to face coverings. She saw Prince Albert artist Ruth Cuthand bead an image of the coronavirus and apply it to a N95 mask, and also noticed others sharing their work on social media.
“Especially during a pandemic, when things are so uncertain, I couldn’t think of a better activity than beadwork because it deflates anxiety,” Hyggen said.
Hyggen mask is informally titled, “As long as the grass grows, and the river flows,” as a reference to Treaty 6. She said she drew on her experience as a landscape artist and split the piece down the middle, reflecting day and night.
She is planning on making two more masks and says she sees the pandemic as a time to reflect on personal and environmental health, including on reserves and in remote communities that have struggled to deal with COVID-19.
“For the first time people everywhere were being asked to stay home and wear a mask when out, roads were quiet and planes weren’t taking off and landing every second, our activity had to pause and as a result Mother Earth was getting a chance to breathe,” Hyggen said.
Leigh Machinine, another Saskatoon artist who created a beaded mask, said she has always found beading therapeutic. When the aunt who taught her the skill died in 2013, beading was part of Machinine’s grieving process.
It was calming and soothing, helping “me remember her, and the good things she did for everybody,” she said.
Machinine says she often beads for friends and family. Normally in the winter and spring, she’d be beading her children’s powwow regalia. If there were no virus, that’s where she’d be this summer, she said.
But with powwows cancelled, Machinine decided to bead a mask instead.
She saw it as a personal challenge. Once done, she refused other requests to make wearable masks. Her artwork was meant to commemorate the moment.
“I beaded it for a reason. To remember the time we went through with this. Everyone washing hands, staying home, staying safe,” she said.
