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Join The Urban Rez for an exciting journey that dives into the intersections of culture, sports, and lifestyle with a fresh, global, inclusive perspective. Each 30-minute episode brings a unique blend of conversations, stories, and interviews that explore the passions and experiences that define our lives.
Announcer 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program.
Wesley Knight 0:04
The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Marcus White 0:14
The urban RES is underwritten by Southwest gas. Since 1931 southwest gas has been committed to serving the communities we live in. Employees actively volunteer for and support organizations and initiatives that make our communities better places to live. For more information, SW, gas.com,
Music 0:32
you
Marcus White 1:16
a Happy Sunday, everyone. We hope that you guys have had an awesome week. And the great thing about today is it's Mother's Day. So we are happy Mother's Day to everybody. Wow,
Dr. B 1:27
Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there. And I would love to give a shout out to my mother. Christina Lewis, I love you, mom.
Marcus White 1:34
Nice and Mom, I love you too. Gwen white, today we have an awesome show for you all. We have a mother and daughter duo from Vancouver. We're
Dr. B 1:48
honored to welcome an incredible mother daughter duo whose work is helping to reclaim, preserve and evolve indigenous art and identity through textile storytelling and culture. Joining us is Aileen Sparrow, a Musqueam artist, model and Weaver whose journey in traditional Salish weaving began alongside her mother, the legendary Deborah Sparrow, together, they are the creative force behind Salish blanket company, a space where tradition meets innovation and where every piece carries generations of story, resilience and cultural knowledge. Aileen represents a new wave bridging past and present, bringing contemporary expression to a once nearly lost art form, while honoring the deep teachings passed down through her family, from weaving and fashion to yoga movement and cultural revitalization, her work reflects a powerful truth culture, and alongside her is her mother, Deborah, one of the most influential figures in the revival of Coast Salish weaving. They embody what it means to carry tradition forward together and across generations. Let's welcome them both to the urban res
Deborah Sparrow 2:53
I started when Ellie was a wee seed, and I was just pregnant with her when I was asked to come into the second group of women who were in the beginning of reviving leaving here in Musqueam and my sister, Wendy. Wendy and I had conversations about who we were and and what was missing in our community as we came to the middle part of our life that we felt, where do we go from here after we finished playing sports and we finished, really, the fun part of our life, which, of course, we all do when we're searching for South is that, you know, excitement of being out there and partying and playing sports and meeting people, and then it became like, is this all there is, I hope not. So, you know, we, we began a journey of, you know, really, actually going inward to try to figure out what were we missing in our community, visually. And, you know, my favorite saying, and always will be, is without a vision, people perish. And we all know, as indigenous people across North America the master plan to put that in place by the colonial so they've done a good job of taking the visuals away from us and our culture and all of us, our language, our visuals. So that's how we started. And it was really good timing for me, because I was walking away from, you know, that part of my life wanting more. I really did pray on it. I began to pray like, Please guide me somewhere away from this kind of world that really takes us away from who we are as indigenous people, via now internet and all the things that take us away from really who we are, I believe. And so it began there, and it's like fast forwarded 40 years later. And you know, there's been so much in my healing journey that it is about healing. It's about replacing those things that took us away from ourselves into replacing them to what is our our value, our spirituality, our integrity, or, you know, the whole of who we are. So I would take up this whole program if I was to tell you all of that. So I'm going to just fast forward a. Out how it's been my saving grace to become who I am. But I started, first making jewelry and learning about Salish graphics, Salish design. And then the second year, I went into weaving and textiles. And reluctantly, mind you, and didn't want to be a weaver, I thought it was some romantic thing that, you know, we had never known about. So in doing so, we're actually learning, we're going back in time and learning about who our women were and how valuable their teachings were, that we were missing. And so, you know, that thread connected us, and there's so much to tell in there that, you know, I can't get into because it would take too much time, but you know, it's been my saving grace. And I raised my three children in a drug and alcohol free home, and I didn't sit them down and teach them, but I hope they were influenced a little bit by what they seen. And they all, they all grew up and went their own ways, and the ways of the world impacted them, much to my bit of sadness that I was hoping by being a good role model, that that would have happened. But we have to look at generational trauma in our communities, all throughout our lands, and growing up in a trauma home with for me, my dad at residential school, again, the saving grace was our mother and Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers. And in our language, we say tan and our language for mother and our mother was our saving grace. So she was strong. My dad died young, and, you know, he did impact our culture, because we, we did have some of our culture that, you know, stayed, and he, he was a big advocate of that. He was a political person. He brought his culture to his politics. That's kind of leader, leaders we need today, that balance, you know, both of those, and we did it very much a foundation of laying the groundwork that we now know it's the value of our system and the laws of our framework is not just about a leading, but about our laws and who we are. So, you know, there's been a lot of learning. And now my daughter, yes, she joined me, like you said seven years ago now, oh my gosh. I can't believe it. And it was almost like, almost like, interesting way in which she did it. And I told her that I wouldn't teach her if she was still in the ways of the world, that she had to take time away for me, for my healing. I really don't want to judge anyone in their lifestyle, but because I knew how much it saved who I am. I feel so sacred with it, and so sacred with our work that, you know, I sort of draw a line, but at the same time, I don't want to, because I want all of our people to, you know, hopefully embrace this as a healing process as well. So, yes, long story.
Dr. B 7:38
Well, sounds really wonderful. I myself, as I indicated, I'm born and raised on the Navajo Nation, and I was am fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with my mom this past week. I actually just came back to Vegas yesterday, and when I was home, you know, I got to visit with a lot of family. And some of my family are Dene, aka Navajo weavers, and I know a lot of our storyline that falls within our weaving traditions and what those narratives are, but I am not as familiar with the sale Salish weaving capacity. We know every nation is different, and I would just like to get some background and context to both from both of you to ask you, what exactly is Salish weaving and your own perspectives?
Deborah Sparrow 8:27
Well, you know when you talk about the Navajo weavers, the fortunate thing for them is that it was a continual generation to generation. And we really honored that up here, and we thought it was amazing and wonderful, and we knew about the Pendleton blankets. But we didn't grow up knowing about weaving. We never saw it. We didn't identify with it. So when it came to us to take time for us to take that journey, now we were like we were taken back, and we were taken back so far into our history and journey that you know, we now know that it reflected, as I said a little earlier, the whole of who we are as people. And so we didn't know about it. So to share it with you down there now, as weavers as well, that's something I've come to understand, is the weaving of the world itself, and the web that this whole world embraces. And you know, so we had to learn everything from start. We had to learn how to spin. We had to use sheeple instead of our traditional mountain goat and dog hair. We had to learn to Dave. We had to learn patterns which are very geometric and mathematical. We had to learn how to build a loom. We had to learn how to build a blanket. And you know, it's been an amazing journey, because we knew nothing. We have no teachers. We we had to call it our ancestor women, and say, be with us and guide us, please for what you want us to do in this world, and bring it back into our communities, which it has, and use it in the traditional way it's supposed to be used. And yet it's a tug of war between a tradition in the community. Nation in a contemporary world, and we all face that today, that this, we don't want this to be the only reason we do this to make money, but we have to value them the same way money is valued. So there's so much going back and forth in two worlds, as you all know, and where we live and how we have to come home to be rooted and then to grow and blossom in this crazy world we live in today. And really want to hold the fibers, hold the strings, and re spin that information right back into this world and share it with the world that really is suffering. As far as I'm concerned, always on a positive level. I always stay focused and positive because of what it's brought to me, and I want to share that with whoever wants to hear or learn or be a part. And also that weaving is universal to all cultures and people. And if we were to make a masterpiece between all of us, we'd have a different world to live in. That that's what's done for me, and I'll turn over to Ali to see what she has to say. She always,
Aileen Sparrow 11:05
I always laugh when I have to talk after her, because I think, How am I supposed to follow that? Can you let me go first?
Aileen Sparrow 11:19
I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. What was the question again? What is Phil Sweeney? What is it? Was it brought to you
Marcus White 11:30
the urban RES is underwritten by Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is Nevada's largest sports venue, hosting two NASCAR race weekends along with an NHRA drag race, the largest electronic music festival in North America, the Electric Daisy Carnival and countless other corporate events annually, NASCAR weekend in Las Vegas, march 14 through 15th. Tickets on sale now@lvms.com and I'll add with that. And also, since you honor that tradition also, what? What does it bring for your own modern voice?
Aileen Sparrow 12:05
Well, I think for me, like I have grown up around weaving, I've seen it my whole life. My mom always says I grew up at the foot of her loom, and it's something that has really integrated into my life since I was a child, and I knew my mom raised me knowing that the work that was being done in our home was very sacred, and it required a lot of responsibility if I were to step to the loom, and so it was never something that I was interested really in doing. And it's funny, I was just talking to a friend yesterday, and I was talking about qualities that I like in a person. I was saying how ambition and drive is very important to me. And I said, I'm very ambitious and driven. My father was very ambitious and driven. But growing up, because my mom was an artist and she stayed at home, I always went, I credit my ambition to my father, because he worked. He worked a full time job, and he never missed a word day of work. And that man was a really hard worker. But now that I've stepped into what my mom does, I went, Holy crap, my mom was a really hard worker. You
Deborah Sparrow 13:19
never told me that you thought of your dad's work is more?
Aileen Sparrow 13:24
No, yeah, so, so and so though I just now that I've I've kind of journeyed through my life and gotten to where I've gotten to. I realize the incredible amount of work that has gone into revitalization of Salish weaving, and the role that my mom has played in that and the way that she has raised me like she said, she never it was never something she forced on us. She never told me that I should learn how to do this. She really led by example, and same with her healing journey and her drinking. And it was as I grew up, I never really wanted to, actually, never even wanted to be a weaver. I worked in an office almost my whole life, right out of high school, from when I was 19 until last year, and I was working for a mid sized law firm in downtown Vancouver, and I went to school at cap you and wanted to be a paralegal. And then when covid happened, I moved home to my mom's house, and I was able to revisit her loom and sit down with her and learn how to weave. And it was something that I ended up being very passionate about, and it quietly shifted my life to do almost a 180 and provided me with a lot of healing and not only weaving, but canoe pulling as well during covid, even though we weren't really supposed to, we put canoes in the water here. And luckily.
Aileen Sparrow 15:00
Them
Aileen Sparrow 15:00
and started paddling
Deborah Sparrow 15:01
towards the episode,
Aileen Sparrow 15:03
yeah, it was more like a lot. Well, yeah, it was more towards the end, but, and so during covid, I was able to kind of return back home and return back to myself and to my mother, to my community and and build new relationships and healthy relationships. And I was able to, I don't want to say, like, relearn or learn my culture, because I grew up, I was born and raised on the reserve, but I think I kind of awakened to the healing that comes with our culture and the grounding that it gave me when I quit drinking four years ago. I learned last year that I have ADHD, so when I'm at my loom and I'm weaving, or I'm on the water and I'm canoe pulling, those repetitive movements really help ground me and calm my brain. And so yeah, weaving for me has, it's completely transformed my life, even though it's been my life since, like I said, like I was in my mom's tummy. It's something that has only started really resonating with me in the last seven years, and it's work that I have deep respect for, and it's kept me on a very healthy road, and it's connected me to it connected me on a deeper level, to my mother and to all of the weavers who came before her. And it's connected me to not only my community, but so many communities in Vancouver and in Canada and internationally. There was a, there was a an event that I did at jackpot Plaza in in the city. And when they asked me to do it, I didn't realize. I said yes, even though it was July 1, it was Canada Day. I said yes, before I realized what day it was. And I thought, Do I want to go down there when it's they're celebrating the country? That kind of took the culture of my people, and so I went down, and I was feeling a little bit backwards about it, but as I was down there, I ended up because I was so central in the city, I met so many people who were just arriving to Canada or who were visiting, and they had amazing questions to ask, and some of them I couldn't answer. And I did let them know like I'm still learning myself, but I also let them know that the very country that they were celebrating took our culture and and put our our children in residential schools, and that there's so many missing pieces of our culture that sometimes I'm not even going to be able to answer their questions, because we're still relearning of ourselves. And there was, but there was also so much connection that happened that day, because I never realized how how big the textile community is. There's people who came and they were so excited. And when they would say, Oh, well, we have this where I came from. So I met people from India, I met people from Japan. I met people. There was an elder who came from New Zealand, and she invited me down for a culture exchange.
Dr. B 18:07
Love the Mari people
Aileen Sparrow 18:09
meet new they're beautiful people, and they have a beautiful culture. I'll make it down there one day.
Dr. B 18:14
Yes, same here, girl
Aileen Sparrow 18:16
and yeah. But there was one woman in particular that stood out, and she was she just arrived here, and she was escaping the war in the Ukraine, and her family lived here, and she couldn't speak English, and she was a grandmother, and when she saw the tent, even though she couldn't speak, she started crying, and her daughter translated for me and said, My mom just wants to thank you for being here, because she had to come here to escape the war, and she misses home, but we have this where we come from, and it looks very similar. And so this is giving her just a little bit of the little bit of something that she needs right now. And so even though I was sitting a little backwards going down there, it ended up being a really beautiful experience that connected me to people internationally. And that's something that that, yeah, it's something that means a lot to me when it comes to textile weaving. So
Dr. B 19:08
I just picked up on a few things. Well, first, when I was in my mother's tummy, she went to ceremonial ceremony all the time, and I was actually born during the Navajo Nation fair while she was in a ceremony, was such a red story, and I was born at the Indian Health Service. So such a rest story. Just kind of brought back memories of mine. I love it all. I love how you talked about the connection to yourself, to to culture, to spirituality, and then also to community. And now that we're talking about community, I kind of want to shift and ask, I know you all are engaged with the Vancouver indigenous Fashion Week, I kind of want to touch base on that, and what role has that played in shaping your path? Would that what did that experience? Experience unlock for you creatively and personally,
Deborah Sparrow 20:04
we've got to find another way of doing this, because the blankets are a heavier material. So we found a company. We work with a blanket company, and we're able to cut and paste and sew and add different materials. Then I found a friend who's a sewer, and he works with us, and he's also designer. And fast forward, we got into Fashion Week, and we're so excited because it brings that identity to a larger, you know, larger people, but at the same time, everyone can identify with those beautiful patterns. And I think I had to be ready to let go of the traditional, deep set way I felt about our weaving, and now we're in a more contemporary mode at some times, but we're also very busy with Fashion Week and all these models. So we also have Salish blanket CO on Granville Island, where we're just starting to that was another one of my dreams and goals, was to have our own blanket company, which we kind of do. And we want to get larger. We want to build our own. We want to bring our blanket company here and manufacturing Vancouver, instead of having to search out somewhere to find blankets commercially. So that's another one of our goals. And you know, we're we are creating a lot of different goals, but it really is an unnerving as well, because you say to yourself, how much of us do we put out there? How much do we allow society to know us? You know when we teach another culture who we are, the Navajo Code Talkers save the world because nobody understood their language, and now we allow other people to know our language. So now what do we keep close to us that they don't know who we are and we don't want them to so we have our winter ceremony in the longhouse where the door shuts and the world is out and we don't allow them in. So there's all these things that we have to think about when we're sharing, and yet, I feel like the world is ready for us to share, because they need us. They need our teachings, because their teachings are not working absolutely so I'm happy and excited about that, but I'm going to leave you here with Allie, because I have to go to blanket village, blanket co because there's a woman who is dressing a lodge way up in the waters up north, and she wants some of our work, so I'm going to go speak to her about it.
Aileen Sparrow 22:13
I grew up in the west side of Vancouver, and our reserve is very urban. We're right in the city, and the school that I went to growing up was a small Catholic private school. And I think, like a lot of children, I went through a lot of bullying, and just over the years, I developed this, like, I guess, a sense of, like, low self esteem just being bullied for being indigenous and for being who I was and in the neighborhood that I was living in.
Aileen Sparrow 22:41
So
Dr. B 22:41
girl, so did I, but I ended up beating everybody up the red way
Aileen Sparrow 22:48
I might
Dr. B 22:50
have done that too me.
Aileen Sparrow 22:58
So yeah, and then just an onslaught, if you know, unhealthy relationships. I think these are a lot of things that our people face growing up in our communities, and like I said, my mom provided me this very safe home that was drug and alcohol free. And there was never, there was never like men coming in and of our health, like we had a very safe, quiet home and it was just us, and she was a single mother of three, and but I also never had, I think, healthy relationships. Modeled for me. So I went through my kind of onslaught of unhealthy relationships. So by the time I met Jolene mitten, who is the founder of Vancouver indigenous Fashion Week and a good friend of my mom's, my mom was doing a welcome event for a group called butterflies and spirit, who brings awareness to murdered and missing Indigenous women. They were traveling to San Francisco, to Alcatraz to do a protest. And so they were fundraising money. And my mom went and did this opening. And I often go with her, because I really like hearing her speak. And so I went and kept her company and met Jolene. And the first thing that Jolene said to me, which is, when she looked at me and she goes, have you modeled before? And I said, No. And she goes, Do you want to? I said, No. And and my mom said, Well, I'm putting a collection in this year, and I'm opening with a blanket. And so you have to, you don't have a choice. And so
Marcus White 24:18
volun told
Aileen Sparrow 24:20
exactly, and that's where my journey began. And I was so nervous. But when I went, it was Fashion Week was kind of still in the beginning. I think only been around for a few years, and and it was still quite small, because I don't even think, I think everything was volunteer at that point. But I went, and I was so fascinated with what was happening backstage. Jolene has created this beautiful culture for kids in care and for the urban indigenous community. And then she's inclusive of our host nations. Must be in Squamish and to label tooth and and now she's expanded to supernatural, which is the. First indigenous modeling agency in North America, and the beauty that was happening behind stage was like mind blowing to me. It was all of the hair, the makeup, the models, the designers, the assistants, everybody is indigenous, or almost everybody is indigenous. And there was just so much, like, beauty, so much resilience backstage. It made me so proud to be who I was. And like, what little girl doesn't want to be treated like a princess? And like, get her hair and makeup done, wear these beautiful dresses made by local designers and now international designers. And when you walk out on stage, it's like, it's such a powerful feeling. And I'm a Sagittarius, like my my energy is like out there, once I get on stage, it's just, it's so much fun. And then after that, I just, I built it. Built like I was there was a community, and there was a family, and we were able to travel down to Santa Fe, to swaya to go model down there, and some of our models have gone to New York Fashion Week and and so it's become something it's become a family, and it's something that I'm so happy to be a part of. And it's played such a huge role in my healing and in building my self esteem to be proud of an being an indigenous person in an urban setting, which is crazy, because I have a mother who who helped, like, build, rebuild parts of our culture, and who raised me in our history and our teachings. And she would take me with her on rides with our great grandfather, and he would tell us about the land and the the stories of the land and where our villages were, and, well, I had all this beautiful, beautiful culture right in front of me, but because of the impact of the outside world, I was still ashamed of who I was, so Vancouver indigenous Fashion Week kind of just propelled me forward to be to remind me of how proud I am to be an indigenous person and to be a Musqueam woman and to be A part of my Sparrow family. And so, yeah, it's really helped in my healing journey. What
Marcus White 27:06
legacy do you hope to leave, not just through your art, but through the impact you're making on the next generation?
Aileen Sparrow 27:12
I have a love hate relationship with social media, but I keep it because there's so many youth have reached out to me and said, Thank you for sharing your journey of sobriety. Thank you for sharing the journey of weaving. Thank you for sharing your journey of fitness, because you're showing us that there is a hope, that there is there is a possibility of healing, and you're showing us what the future could look like. And I know that I'm making that impact, not only on the community, but I have a 20 year old son who chose to leave the blanket for his capstone project when he graduated grade 12, and he he wore it across the stage of the church because he was going to school at a Catholic High School where he chose to go. But to see that image of my son wearing a blanket that he chose to weave across the stage of the church, and knowing that he accomplished what he did was so powerful, and so I'm doing kind of what my mom dad did, and just trying to lead by example in hopes that the children will be able to follow my example.
Dr. B 28:09
Okay,
Marcus White 28:09
beautiful.
Dr. B 28:10
Well, that is amazing. We're really honored to spend time with you today. Happy Mother's Day to you again, lovely
Aileen Sparrow 28:18
mother, thank you,
Marcus White 28:20
and again, we definitely will be following you. So what is your social handle? Just in case people would
Aileen Sparrow 28:27
my social handle is at Aileen Sparrow, a, l, e, e, n, s, p, A, R, R, O, W, and we have also Salish blanket CO, all one word,
Marcus White 28:38
all right. Well, thank you so much. Enjoy their Mother's Day. Everyone have Have a Happy Mother's Day. The urban RES is underwritten by global wave consulting, international specializing in IT solutions from network penetration testing and vulnerability management to SAP basis support and web application security. Global wave helps businesses stay secure and efficient in a digital world For more information, global wave ci.com
Transcribed by https://otter.ai