Just in time for Christmas

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After an absence of five years, the National Arts and Crafts show is back. The Aboriginal Artisans Traditions Association has been revived and with it the arts and crafts show it held annually.

This year the show will be held at the Shaw Conference Centre on Nov. 28 to Nov. 30. It is expected that upwards of 50 booths will be filled.

Well-known artists will be coming in, said co-coordinator Martha Campiou, including Jane Ash Poitras, Dale Auger, Rocky Barstad, Stan Hill from Ontario and Alex Janvier. She said they are "quite pleased and ecstatic that it is finally happening again, because there hasn't been a major show of Aboriginal people specializing in Aboriginal art and craft for quite a long time."

The crafts that people can expect to be up for sale are moccasins, mukluks, beaded barrettes and smaller items that people make that aren't readily available in department stores, she said. Specialty item crafters include moose hair tufters, moose horn carvers, starblanket makers and maybe even a birchbark biter, though that hadn't been confirmed by Campiou at the time she spoke with Alberta Sweetgrass.

Also planned is a variety of entertainment, including vocalists and Native dancers. Native cuisine will be provided by the Native Seniors Centre as a fund-raiser for their organization.

"We are trying to bring in quite a wide array of artisans, and also of different cultures," said Campiou.

The work will be Aboriginal specific and all hand-crafted, and while not juried, the co-ordinators are screening the work so sensitive materials of a ceremonial or spiritual nature won't be sold.

Campiou and co-coordinator Val Kaufman had volunteered their time for nine years to organize the show before it was put on hiatus for five years. Campiou is retired from her work with the National Association of Friendship Centres and can now devote more time to the association, she said.

"I decided that this is very important. As an artisan, a crafts person and a designer, I feel that artists and artisans are the preservers of culture and that is one of the primary means of carrying on our heritage and telling the story of who we are in the work that we do."

The show will run Nov. 28 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on Nov. 29 and Nov. 30 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Crafters can still book their booths by calling Campiou at (780) 970-7253 or Kaufman at (780) 444-4225. The Aboriginal Artisans Traditions Association is a non-profit society and welcomes new members.