New store features Indigenous goods

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This article was published 07/09/2019 (2471 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new store at 912 Rosser Ave. in downtown Brandon is showcasing First Nations, Métis and Inuit products.

Dunes Relaxed Fashions Manitoba is run in a building right next to Shawarma Queen Kebab House by Sherryl Maglione-McLean, who goes by “Mags,” and Robert McLean.

The business used to be run out of the couple’s basement starting in 2017, but grew large enough to need its own storefront, which they opened in July.

“We did a lot of travelling as well,” Mags said. “We travelled to powwows, educations conferences, craft shoes, different events, meetings and so on.”

By day, Mags is a high school English and art teacher at Crocus Plains High School while Robert holds down the fort at the store. After school is over, Mags takes over running the shop and is also there all day on Saturdays.

Robert was in the process of retiring after a lengthy career in the grocery industry but delayed retirement for a year so that Mags could work two jobs while the retail business is established.

“I’m a shopaholic, so I needed a place to shop and create other shopaholics,” Mags said.

Once the school year is done, the 56-year-old Mags plans to retire from teaching and run the store full time.

“I wanted to transfer some of the skills I learned as a teacher to a different way of teaching and teaching my passion, which is sewing and teaching,” Mags said.

Mags, whose mother was born on the Saddle Lake Cree Nation north of Edmonton, is looking to support Indigenous artists through selling their goods and selling crafting supplies.

“One of our goals is to bring (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) art to the public,” she said.

The couple used to live on Vancouver Island, where Mags was inspired by similar stores selling Indigenous goods.

She told The Sun that local craft suppliers have stopped selling things such as beads, which forced some people to travel to Winnipeg to stock up on supplies. Now there’s a local option, and people are coming from as far away as Dauphin to shop.

Originally, Mags was selling ladies’ clothes from Dunes Relaxed Fashions out of Mexico but has since expanded to carrying clothes, art and other items made by First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.

“I think people are interested in the art, I think they’re interested in being part of that understanding as well. Because there’s so much more to it than just something that looks awesome. There’s more — it’s highly symbolic.”

The store also sells items on consignment from Indigenous artisans and has shipped goods as far away as California and Washington, D.C.

Some of the local products they sell include ceremonial tobacco from Mother Earth Tobacco in Portage la Prairie and works of art made from metal and reclaimed barn wood made by Iron Age Welding north of Brandon.

They also sell art from Birdtail Sioux artist Maxine Noel, who currently lives in Ontario.

One of Mags’ own art projects is making earrings representative of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. She said those have been quite popular and even sold some to the sister of Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former justice minister and attorney general that had an acrimonious spilt from the federal Liberals earlier this year.

Workshops for artists are held in an upstairs space, where people can learn the tools to make their own art.

The owners are hoping that the community will support them as they continue to support Indigenous art and artists.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

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