NIIZH MANIDOOK
HIDE CAMP
OUR TEAM
TEACHERS
BRENDA LEE (she/her)
Maskwacis Cree Nation
BRENDA LEE (she/her/hers/auntie/kohkom) is a Plains Cree First Nations woman from the Treaty Six Territory, born and raised in Maskwacis Alberta. Brenda was fortunate enough to have spent her formative years with her grandmother: Nancy Oldpan Nee-Roasting, who taught her how to sew, bead, harvest and learn the cultural teachings. Brenda developed the interest and knowledge in these art forms exploring her culture through art.
Brenda went back to school to enhance her creative skills as an artist , she enrolled in Lac La Biche College, Alberta in the fall of 2005-2007 the programs were: Artisan and Native Cultural Arts Instructor a 2 year program, one of the courses offered was the 13 step traditional hide tanning by Elder Elsie Quintel and Instructor Ruby Sweetman. There she learned the traditional way of harvesting a home tanned hide. Through her 16 years as a hide tanner Brenda has learned several ways of processing hides and continues on that journey.
Brenda has worked in different areas over the years in Cultural Camps, Universities, High Schools, Health and Wellness Organizations, Friendship Centers and Museums, she’s taught beading techniques, Tanning hides, tipi making, moccasin making, harvesting porcupine quills and techniques, regalia making , ceremonial articles and producing items for private collections.
Brenda’s focus is on restoring our cultural heritage through the arts, specializing and working primarily within the cultural arts programs. She is able to deliver a step by step instructional workshop to develop a superior quality product, to expand and enhancing creativity in reclaiming our pride as First Nations peoples. It is important for Brenda to teach individuals who are willing to learn about the creation of the product and what it takes to construct it.
Brenda resides in the beautiful Nipissing First Nation located in Ontario and continues to instruct with natural and contemporary materials and is becoming a sought after Artisan.
HUNTER (they/them)
Georgian Bay Métis
HUNTER CASCAGNETTE (they/them/theirs) is a Queer, Non-Binary / Trans, 2Spirit interdisciplinary artist, grower, harvester and herbalist of Mixed Georgian Bay Métis and French/Scottish/English Settler ancestry from Southern Georgian Bay.
Hunter’s visual art practice is centered around naturally dyed deer rawhides, traditional brain tanning of deer & moose hides, antler work & the intersections between plant medicine, trees & hides.
Their family’s relationships to hunting deer and moose motivated Hunter to learn hide tanning.
From brain tanning their first deer hide in 2017, to tanning their first moose hide with their partner in 2020, to bark tanning their first sheepskin in 2024, Hunter continues to fall more deeply in love with the process & transformation of tanning hides.
Hunter teaches hide tanning for hire & sells their handcrafted smoke-tan hides & rawhides through their small business Medicines From The Land @medicines_from_the_land. They are a co-founder & hide tanning mentor with Niizh Manidook Hide Camp. They've become known as a "hide dad" at NMHC.
Attending hide camps has profoundly impacted Hunter’s hide tanning journey & practice. They are dedicated to continuing to learn & share knowledge about this rich ancestral artform.
Beze Gray(they/them)
Aamjiwnaang FN
Teacher & Organizer
BEZE GRAY (they/ them/ theirs) is a Two-Spirit, trans, non binary Anishnaabe/Oneida/Munsee/Lunaape from Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Beze’s main focuses in life are Language, Cultural revitalization and being a Two Spirit youth advocate for environmental racism and injustices their community Aamjiwnaang faces.
They are a land and water protector speaking out about Canada's petrochemical (oil) industry and it's impacts on the waters, lands and people in the Great Lakes. Beze graduated from Georgian College in Anishnaabemowin & Program Development and continues to study language.
Beze started out learning hunting and making rawhide in their Lunaape community in Moraviantown. They learned from Uncles how to harvest from the deer and process a rawhide. Since then, Beze was one of the youth apprentices from the 2020 Niizh Manidook Hide Camp and learned to fully soften and complete a hide to smoked Buckskin. They have also finishing a moose hide and have helped on several other deer and moose hides.
They learned from different nations and received guidance on hide tanning from Metis, Lunaape, Dene, and Cree teachings. Beze has been a treasurer /co-facilitator with Niizh Manidook Hide Camp since 2020 and volunteered at the first NMHC in 2019. Beze is a co-founder of Niizh Manidook Hide Camp and The Toxic Tour; an awareness raising tour through Canada's Chemical Valley and ASAP (Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia Against Pipelines).
Terra Ray (she/her)
Beausoleil First Nation
aniin waywana boozhoo ga kina-waya, mnaan mad kwe n’dizhnikaaz miinwa my’iingan n’dodem g’chi nme mnissing miinwa nbissing n’doonjibaa — Marcia miinwa Robert zhinikawuk n’gitzimuk — Martin miinwa Richard zhinikawuk n’mishomisak — Iris miinwa Catheline zhinikawuk nookmisak — naazhe kwe zhinikawuk shemeh miinwa Mason - hayanoweh zhinkawuk saayehn miinwa sage zhinkwawuk gaazhag ehn Hoss zhinikawuk niimoosh
Terra Roy is a multi-disciplinary artist and youth advocate.
Coming from shores of the Great Lakes, Terra was raised in her fathers home community of Garden Village (Nipissing First Nation) and later, in Barrie. Considered a bit of a “Modern Nomad”, she has been privileged with living in both of her parents’ home communities. Having spent her teenage years in her mother’s community of Chimnissing (Beausoleil First Nation) and later, moved back-to Barrie.
Terra is the co-founder of the Georgian Bay Two Spirit Pow Wow taking side their long-time friend, Thunder Sharma. The two had successfully spearheaded the Two Spirit pow wow movement on this side of the Great Lakes, with the first event having been held at Springwater Provincial Park in August, 2018. Bringing us to the present, they are now celebrating six years of coming together at these events; none of which would be possible without the tireless efforts and love from our communities. She is the current South-East Youth Female Representative on the Anishinabek Nation’s Eshkiniijig (Youth) Council, having been apart of the team since the earlier days of February 2023. She’s helped at a handful of assemblies and, supported the youth of the nation at the annual youth gathering that took place in Thunder Bay, August of 2023.
Terra has had a handful of her paintings showcased at the Tarragon theatre downtown Toronto, where some have been purchased and continue to be showcased in private collections. They have also continued to work closely with a non-profit organization, Water First, where her designs have been seen by a number of youth across Canada.
Terra has been working on revitalizing the brain-tanning method of hide tanning in Ontario, with a focus on deer hides. Terra is currently learning through her apprenticeship with Niizh Manidook Hide Camp under her mentors, Beze and Hunter. They have been working on tanning hides in and around Tiny Township since the early months of 2019. The group having now hosted four camps all across southern Ontario, Terra is now coming into her second year of mentoring with the Niizh Manidook collective.
The first hide Terra had the opportunity to work on was a moose hide. She has previously worked with deer, moose, black bear and even an eagle (lovingly known as, Jennifer) since the beginning of her hide tanning journey.
Terra continues her hide tanning journey by attending camps, forums, gatherings as well as hosting her own camps and demonstrations with those such as Georgian College, Nipissing, Rama, and Batchewana First Nation.
Jodi Lynn Maracle (They/She)
Kanein'keh:ka
Jodi Lynn Maracle (They/She) is a queer mixed Kanien’keha:ka parent, maker, do-er, artist and language teacher who first learned hide-tanning in a backyard in Toronto in 2015 and fell instantly in love, as though all over again, with the rhythms, the feels, heck, even the smells.
Jodi describes their technique as DIY on the fly working with what’s at hand with the space and tools available. As an artist, Jodi utilizes Haudenosaunee material language and techniques, such as hand tanning deer hides and corn husk twining, in conversation with performance, soundscapes, video and projection to interrogate questions of power, erasure, story making and responsibility to the land.
They’re most proud to hear their children speak their Mohawk language everyday.
APPRENTICES
Mary Ann Maiangowi (She/Her)
Wiikwemkoong
Mary Ann Maiangowi-Manâdj (Manatch) (Kwe/They/She) b. 2000 Mary Ann Maiangowi-Manatch is an emerging Odawa (Wiikwemkoong) & Algonquin (Mitchikanibikok Inik) artist, friend, and a protector of the earth. Practising on Anishinabeg territory alongside the land, Mary Ann specializes in birch bark work, brain hide tanning, and acrylic and oil paintings.
Mary Ann’s work focuses on healing and ancestral knowledge pulling from their life experiences to create culturally significant pieces that help discuss Indigenous issues as well as Anishinabek pedagogies. Being an advocate for Land-Based Learning initiatives and the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge into education, Mary Ann works closely with Anishinabek youth, allowing them to experience the land as they do. Mary Ann holds a Fine Arts diploma from Centennial College.
Mary Ann has been a three time participant with Ngig Indigenous Regalia Residency with OCADu and has also completed three traditional hide tanning camps with Niizh Manidook Hide Camp, and has assisted in facilitating a hide tanning camp with Endaayaan Awejaa in 2022.
In the summer of 2023, Mary Ann became a Youth Ambassador with the The Kickback Foundation and the Toronto Raptors. Mary Ann is currently completing their Bachelor of Fine Arts in Indigenous Visual Culture at the Ontario College of Art and Design University.
Anderson (they/them)
Six Nations of the Grand River
Anderson (they/she) — govt. name Emma Anderson — is a queer, mixed Kanyen’kehá:ka and Scottish artist and full-time Kanyen’kéha student. Their introduction to the world of tanning was during a fish skin tanning workshop taught by Chelsey Bouchard in 2022.
The next summer they attended Niizh Manidook Hide Camp for the first time and fell in love with the deeply collaborative and resourceful nature of hide-tanning. They look forward to furthering their learning, returning to hides they’ve had the privilege of working on, and the uniquely magical medicine of being surrounded by Two-Spirit kin.
ORGANIZERS
Niiohontéhsha (they/them)
Six Nations of the Grand River
Niiohontéhsha (they/them/theirs) is Indigiqueer/ non-binary/celestial being who is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk)/ Scottish/British from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.
Niiohontéhsha is a community birthworker, health worker, and harm reduction worker for Call Auntie in Toronto. Working with Aunties to reimagine a different way of taking care of each other and our health has inspired Niio to center kinship models of care in all aspects of their life!
Niio's hide tanning mentors include Brenda Lee (Plains Cree), Melaw Nakehk’o (Dene), Mandee MacDonald (Swampy Cree), Amber Sandy (Anishinaabe) and Jodi-Lynn Maracle (Kanien’kehá:ka), and of course Hunter and Beze! Niio has been attending camp since 2019 as a participant and is joining the core team as an organizer this year. Niio is beyond excited to be hosting camp at home by the Grand River.
What keeps their fire lit is community organizing, community care, land-based teaching and learning. They are learning their language one mispronounced word at a time. They continue to practice radical reproductive justice and birth keeping practices.