Sisters work to put the Native in graduations

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Through her company Muskwa Designs, Adele Pete creates graduation gowns that have a little Native flair, incorporating appliques of feathers, eagles, bears, and buffalo into the design.

The company is a family affair, with Adele's two sisters, Yvonne Pete of Little Pine, and Loretta Hall of Saskatoon, taking part in the business. Yvonne helps with the design and sewing, while Loretta, the computer whiz, maintains the company's Web site. The three women divide their time between Muskwa Designs and their other endeavors. Adele is a teacher at Chief Little Pine School. Yvonne is a homemaker. Loretta has a Web site design and hosting company called Eagle Feather Data Exchange (EFDX).

Adele and Yvonne designed their first Native graduation gown a few years back, when Adele was an administrator at the Chief Little Pine school.

"And when we got in there, being a Native person, I thought we should be doing things the Native way, the traditional way, even having a traditional graduation, with drumming and giving away feathers, and so forth." And with that in mind, they made their first grad gown.

Although the women got a positive response from the first Native-inspired gown, to start a company that would supply them wasn't something Adele had planned on pursuing seriously. Not until a couple of years ago, after she became ill.

"I had a dream about this one graduation gown that I was to make, with an eagle design in the back, with the feathers," Adele said.

"During my sickness and my illness, in attending sweats and ceremonies and so forth, I began having these dreams. And I thought, 'Ah, OK. That's something for me to do. Maybe that's my fate, to go in that direction.'

"And that's how it got started, and then I thought, this must be my calling. I've dreamt about it twice. OK, I'm going to go for it. So I designed the gown."

Once that gown from her dream was designed and completed, the women began publicizing the company, both through the Web site, and by sending faxes to schools letting them know Native grad gowns were available. And things haven't slowed down much since.

"We got good raves from last year. Surrounding reserves here ordered gowns, and also kindergrad gowns as well, we did," Adele said. Adele explained the attraction.

"Because of the traditional, getting back to the roots of who we are as First Nations people. Being proud of our heritage and culture, and our traditions. And I believe more and more people are geared towards having a Native grad, and having Native grad design gowns."

Customers interested in having a Native design graduation gown can either chose from one of the designs that have already been created, or a gown can be custom designed.

"It depends also what the customer wants, and we design that. They could be designed with feathers, eagles, buffalo, bears, bear claws. It all depends on the person. And we don't have an inventory. It's just custom-make how they want it. Because if we were to design them and have them on hand, I don't think we could be able to fit the sizings and whatever to people's needs."

The price range for the graduation gown varies, depending on the material used, and how many designs are added. Gowns start at about $35, and can go up to $75 for a satin gown, Adele said.

The amount of time it takes to fill an order for graduation gowns depends on the number required. For an order of around 50 gowns, at least a couple of months' notice would be required. For around 30 gowns, at least a month's notice would be needed, Adel said.

As more and more people learn about Muskwa Designs, the demand for graduation gowns grows. Requests for information about the gowns have come in from as far away as Ohio.

Adele is working on filling an order of graduation gowns for the school in Loon Lake, Sask. And the women have already filled gown orders for schools in Thunderchild First Nation, Little Red River, Sturgeon Lake, and three separate orders from Chief Little Pine schoo. One girl from Fort McMurray, Alta. wore one of the creations when she graduated from university.

"So it's getting out there. People are hearing about us, so that's good," Adele said. "It can be anywhere from one gown to, like I say, 50 gowns. Which is neat. And I love doing that anyway."

That love of sewing is something the three women got from their mother while they were growing up, Adele explained.

"That's how we grew up. Our mother taught us to sew, to knit, to quilt, to crochet. We made our own socks, our own mittens, our own scarves. We made our blankets. So thank you to my mom, who is no longer with us. She taught us a lot of things."

Although the graduation gowns make up a big part of the orders the women receive, they are far from being the only thing Adele creates.

"I do wedding dresses, traditional dance outfits, jingle dresses, ribbon shirts. At the moment, I'm beading. I'm making a cape for myself. I make a lot of my own dresses. And also I've been asked to make jumpers and dresses with feathers and bears, and things like that, through some of my teacher friends and so forth. And then they tell their friends, and then they want some shirts made," she said.

"And I also do shawls as well . . . I designed a butterfly shawl for my niece when she graduated last year, and I guess she got good rave reviews about that as well. That's nice to hear, when people are satisfied and happy about the product."

One of the most challenging orders the women have had to fill involved the creation of four formal gowns for a wedding.

"And that was quite a challenge, because the people lived in the north, and we had no contact with them. We don't know who they are, and we had to do phoning for sizing, things like that. It was quite a challenge," she said.

"As a matter of fact, one of those gowns showed up in the Aboriginal Achievement Awards on TV last year, and I was just shocked. I said to my husband, 'That's one of the gowns we designed. Awesome.'"

For more inormation about the graduation gowns or any of the other products being created by Muskwa Designs, visit the company Web site at http://www.muskwaholdings.com or fax your requests to 398-2022.