S2E15: Lisa Kennedy (Saginaw Chippewa)

2023 Artist in Business Leadership fellow Lisa Kennedy (Saginaw Chippewa) is a beacon of indigenous art. Join us as Lisa takes us through her vibrant tapestry of life – from humble beginnings to crafting a legacy. She and her partner, Adam Avery, illuminate the rich cultural heritage by intertwining traditional art forms like beadwork and black ash basket weaving with contemporary narratives. Lisa's academic prowess in public administration also comes into play, showcasing how one can serve one's community by marrying cultural teachings with modern strategies. Her candid account of overcoming self-doubt to embrace her role as a knowledge keeper is a striking reminder of the resilience woven into the fabric of indigenous stories.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's a beautiful way to live.
I not only get to be creativeand make something with my hands
, but I get to do it withsomebody that I love, and we get
to do it collectively withpeople not only in our community
but throughout other tribalcommunities, throughout Indian
Country.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
The CollectivSpirit Podcast presents the
CollectivSpirit Podcast.
The CollectivSpirit moves eachof us to stand up and make a
difference, to pass on ancestralknowledge and simply extend a
hand of generosity.
The CollectivSpirit Podcastfeatures Native artists and
culture bearers who discuss thepower of Indigenous art and

(00:51):
culture.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
My name is Lisa Kennedy.
I am affiliated with theSaginaw Chippewa Indian tribe in
Michigan.
I reside in Central Michiganwithin the contemporary
boundaries of my tribe.
My artistic medium is quitediverse.
I'm known for my beadwork, ourwoodland style seed bead art.

(01:20):
I display this in a variety ofdifferent ways.
Primarily, right now, what I'mknown for is making moccasins,
specifically poker toe moccasins, split toe moccasins.
But I also do other things.
So I come from a long line ofblack ash basket makers and I

(01:41):
have reclaimed that art.
So I weave baskets and I wasactually able to do that with
the help of my partner, adam,who also comes from black ash
basket makers.
He helped me reclaim that artthat was lost within my family
over a few generations.
And then I also do a variety ofdifferent things, like we work

(02:03):
with quills and birch bark, andI'm also known for my cloth work
.
I applied for the SmallBusiness Development Grant Under
that specific initiative.
One of the things that Adam andI do collectively is we share a
collective which we call NishaOdei Two Hearts, which is named
after his grandmother, who wasknown as Two Hearts.

(02:32):
I started doing beadwork when Iwas 19 years old.
I'm in my 50s now.
I started doing it as a way toearn an income for my son, who I
was pregnant with.
My son was born in 1990 and itwasn't until the year he was
born that we actually moved intoour first home that had indoor
plumbing.

(02:52):
I had to find a way to makesome extra money to care for him
.
I did that by learning how todo beadwork.
I did loomed pieces and beadeddangly fringe earrings, which
are coming back into style today, with some quills on them.

(03:12):
And then I transitioned intoworking for my tribe and stepped
away.
Really didn't have the time tofocus on it because I was
working full time.
I went back to school, wasraising my son and then
eventually had the opportunityto be creative again.
I hold a master's in publicadministration.

(03:45):
I have worked for my tribalcommunity for almost 22 years
and a variety of differentmanagement level positions,
working for human service typeprogramming, and as an outcome
of that experience, I had theopportunity to be trained in a
variety of different curriculumsthat are centered on wellness,

(04:10):
culture, our traditions, ourteachings.
I feel really fortunate to havehad the opportunity to balance
what I learned academically andbe exposed to curriculums that
are rooted in our life ways anduse that information and those
teachings and that knowledge tohelp our community overcome

(04:33):
struggles that we're dealingwith.
So then, jumping forward, I wenton through school, eventually
got reacquainted with Adam.
Adam is from this community,had an opportunity for a long
time to work with his auntiesand then personally, him and I
had an opportunity to becomere-familiar with one another and

(04:55):
visit and eventually started arelationship, and through that
relationship Adam has alwaysbeen immersed, like even when he
owned his pizza shop, he wouldalways have pieces that he was
working on a table in hisrestaurant.
He really inspired me to pickthose beads back up and to start
being creative.

(05:15):
And so we started doing thattogether, working on little
pieces, earrings, smallerprojects, and we couldn't keep
up with the demand that peoplehad for us while working.
Eventually I made the decisionfor us to work for ourselves,
collectively.
It really exploded and we'revery busy, we're very creative.

(05:39):
It really has given us anopportunity to go into other
communities and teach.
So collectively we create somepretty significant things, not
only for individuals but forcommunities, for collections,
for museums.

(06:00):
I have to say that I doubtedmyself for a long time can I do
this?
Do I have the capacity to dothis.
Am I a knowledge keeper?
Do I have what it takes toshare what it is that I do with
other people?
And have come to the conclusionthat I do and I'm still
learning.
I think at the root of a lot ofstruggle is just believing in

(06:25):
yourself.
Do I really have knowledge?
Do I have a skill?
Do I have this artistic ability, this vision, this insight, and
will people believe me andvalue it?
That is something personallythat I've struggled with before,
but I also think that'sslightly inherent in our
communities Believing inyourself and believing what it

(06:49):
is that you do artistically hasvalue and that it has a purpose
and it has a meaning and it'smeant to be out there.
My project proposal was focusedon developing the business end
of Nisho-dei Two Hearts.

(07:09):
It was focused on building awebsite, a business website, a
storefront, a virtual storefront, product development, marketing
, because that really is alsoanother struggle that I think we
as artists experience is thatmost often we do one-of-a-kind
pieces that can vary in price,but it's not necessarily

(07:34):
sustainable.
So you see people that haveworked with First People's Fund,
like Lauren Goodday, who isphenomenal and I love her, and
so how can we translate that asartists.
That really is the primaryfocus of what my proposal and my
grant reflex was from FirstPeople's Fund.
How it's progressed has beeninteresting because we have been

(07:59):
submerged with educationalopportunities to teach in other
tribal communities and so wehave spent a considerable amount
of time working in tribalcommunities over this grant
period that we didn'tnecessarily predict it's been
phenomenal, but it definitelyhas shifted the way that I'm

(08:19):
thinking about what ourpriorities are.
With the business end ofNisho-dei Two Hearts.
It's a beautiful way to live.
I not only get to be creativeand make something with my hands
, but I get to do it withsomebody that I love and we get
to do it collectively withpeople not only in our community

(08:40):
but throughout other tribalcommunities, throughout Indian
country.
I really am a true believer innot keeping up with the past and
I really am a true believer innot keeping my knowledge or my
skills, my artistic ability, tomyself.

(09:01):
I'm a true believer in givingit away to other people, sharing
it with other people, beingcreative and reclaiming our life
ways, and sharing that andliving that way really has
brought me peace and happinessand wellness and I guess it's

(09:23):
come full circle and my journey,I don't think has ended.
I'm always learning.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
The Collective Spirit podcast is produced by First
Peoples Fund, whose mission isto honor and support Indigenous
artists and culture bearersthrough grant making initiatives
, culturally rooted programming,and training and mentorship.
Learn more atFirstPeoplesFundorg.