October 4, 2023 • 10 mins
Join us as we learn more about 2023 Artist in Business Leadership Fellow Chanel Gallagher (Ojibwe), who dared to swap her career in social work for her passion for pottery. Chanel's story, rich with the power of embracing her Indigenous roots and reconnecting with the earth through clay, will inspire and enlighten you. This episode will debunk age-old misconceptions about Ojibwe pottery, immersing you in the compelling history of Indigenous art.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I want to interact with the world in a different
way.
I don't want to be a colonizedsocial worker that diagnoses
someone with a mental healthdisorder that was plated by
non-native people.
I want to work with clay andour people and I want to use the
way I'm in a sustainable wayand share that.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
First People's Fund presents the Collective Spirit
Podcast.
The Collective Spirit moveseach of us to stand up and make
a difference, to pass onancestral knowledge and simply
extend a hand of generosity.
The Collective Spirit Podcastfeatures Native artists and
culture bearers who discuss thepower of Indigenous art and
(00:56):
culture.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Hello everybody.
My name is White Cloud Woman.
I'm from Malax, where Ojibwepeople here in Ishtenabbe, which
is all across the Great Lakes,I'm a part of the Bullhead Clan,
my English name is ChanelGallagher and my artistic medium
is ceramics.
When I was 18, I moved to NorthCarolina for college.
(01:22):
I first discovered clay atWarren Wilson College and the
first time I touched the Wabagon, which is the Ojibwe word for
clay, there was this sense ofthis nostalgic coming home, like
I've done this before.
Oftentimes we hear this asblood memory.
Sometimes we talk about it withhistorical trauma, but I think
(01:43):
that there's more positivethings that we as Indigenous
people have inherently in bloodmemory.
So when I first touched thatclay when I was 18, there was
something very spiritual thathappens with me, with the earth,
and because of that I didn'tthink that I could do it as a
profession.
I'm doing this because it makesmy heart sing and that I feel
(02:06):
joyful doing it.
I'm not working as a socialworker anymore because I feel
this drive to create and workwith the Wabagon.
For the last 10 years I wasworking as a therapist in the
Minneapolis community.
My specialty would be more of anon-directive experiential
psychodynamic, so working withpeople in art therapy, play
(02:31):
therapy.
My last job was at HomewardBound, which is a shelter here
in South Minneapolis for NativeAmerican adults.
I was the clinical directorthere for a few years building
out their mental health program.
So we had opened up the firstshelter in the state of
Minnesota specifically for adultNative people.
(02:52):
That was my last job, so reallyworking with Native people in a
way that they want to work,because with a lot of these
manualized treatments peoplehave to adhere to a clinical
program and I know that ourpeople don't necessarily want to
be told what to do.
I worked with a lot of childrendoing experiential play therapy.
(03:13):
I worked at an Ojibwe Dakotalanguage immersion school right
here on the South Side calledBidote.
I would work with kids doingclay therapy and oftentimes they
would gravitate towards art orsome sort of experiential medium
like xantra therapy.
We had modeling clay in ourtherapeutic room.
(03:36):
When I was with them in theexperiential play therapy room I
reflected on what they wantedto do when they would go to the
modeling clay or the sand trayor if they wanted to paint.
I was able to see healing in adifferent way with kids as a
therapist.
But you don't have enough timeto do the real work that you
(03:58):
want to do with kids.
That's why I left the fieldabout a year ago, because what I
really want to do is to open upa center here in Minneapolis
and Minnesota McCoy Jay that cancombine healing and the
artistic mediums so that ourpeople can go to a place right
(04:19):
here in South Minneapolis andthey don't have to be diagnosed
with a mental health disorder tohave help or to have healing.
They can go to a place and knowthat they're accepted, no
matter how they come throughthose doors.
I had to leave my profession ayear ago because my idea is to
do it with clay.
I think that there's a realnatural, spiritual thing that
(04:42):
happens when we touch the earthand then make something from the
earth.
There's a lot of power in that.
That's for a year later I'mdoing all my own firings.
I mix all my own glazes.
I learned how to make my ownstudio.
Now I think the social workdegree is going to help me down
the road when I want to open thecenter here in Minneapolis.
(05:04):
Due to colonization, there arepeople that believe that the
Ojibwe people in the Shinabédidn't work with pottery.
That's what I was told when Iwas younger and I took that as a
fact because someone told methat it didn't make sense that
(05:27):
we didn't work with Wabagon theclay, because that comes from
the earth.
There's clay everywhere in thestate of Minnesota, all across
the Great Lakes.
There's this beautiful,beautiful, rich clay.
In the North Shore, gichigamiand river has this gorgeous clay
(05:48):
.
I started listening to myintuition, to my blood memory,
and I started realizing that ofcourse we worked with clay.
You know, tribes across TurtleIsland have always been
connected to the clay and to theland, and so in the last couple
weeks I've been going up to myreservation and I've been
(06:10):
foraging wild clay and I've beentalking to our elders up there.
I had the opportunity to go tothe Science Museum here in St
Paul, minnesota.
There's an anthropologist therethat has a private collection
of woodland pottery and heshowed it to me last Friday.
(06:33):
This is pottery from our peoplehere in this region, and so I
was able to see some of thevessels in the shards and it's
malax pottery.
There's different kinds ofpatterns that we use.
This is pre-contact,pre-colonization.
Sure enough, theanthropologists I told them
people have told me that wedidn't do that and he said
(06:55):
that's so interesting, but whatdid you guys cook with then?
First People's Fund hassolidified that to be an artist
is really an act of courage,every single day To wake up and
not have a nine to five job.
You don't get a check at theend of two weeks or once a month
or every week.
You kind of have to have faiththat what you're doing every day
(07:17):
.
There's a reason why you do itand I think the reason is
because you love it.
But I think, with FirstPeople's Fund, meeting all the
other fellows, seeing thecommunity spirit awardees and
seeing and hearing people'slifelong commitment to their
culture and to their art, thefact that they do it because
they know they need to do it, torevitalize our stories, our
(07:40):
ceremonies, the way we useresources from the earth in a
more sustainable way there's somany teachings in being an
artist that for me, it's more ofa way of life.
I want to interact with theworld in a different way.
I don't want to be a colonizedsocial worker that diagnoses
someone with a mental healthdisorder that was created by
(08:03):
non-native people.
I want to work with clay andour people, and I want to use
the land in a sustainable wayand share that.
It's about being one with theearth, one with our family, one
with our community.
So it's been a challenge tocall myself an artist, for sure,
but the clay has always beenconnected to me, and the people
(08:24):
as young as two all the way upto 90, can make something with
clay.
I love that, and so my projectthat I proposed was to buy my
own kiln and open my own studiowhere native people can come and
work for free, so trying tocreate more access and equity in
the contemporary field ofceramics, especially here in
Minneapolis, because we have alarge urban Indian population
(08:47):
and when you go to thesecommunal studios you don't see
any native people.
I hope to revitalize WoodlandPottery, especially for the
Ojibwe and the Shnabe peoplehere in the state of Minnesota,
so that we can learn ourtechniques, similar to the
Kueblos down in the Southwest,they've tapped all of their
beautiful pottery traditions,and up here we've kind of lost
(09:12):
it, and so my goal is torevitalize that, and then it may
take 20 years.
This may be my life's work, andI'm okay with that.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
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.
I want to interact with the world in a different
way.
I don't want to be a colonizedsocial worker that diagnoses
someone with a mental healthdisorder that was plated by
non-native people.
I want to work with clay andour people and I want to use the
way I'm in a sustainable wayand share that.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
First People's Fund presents the Collective Spirit
Podcast.
The Collective Spirit moveseach of us to stand up and make
a difference, to pass onancestral knowledge and simply
extend a hand of generosity.
The Collective Spirit Podcastfeatures Native artists and
culture bearers who discuss thepower of Indigenous art and
(00:56):
culture.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Hello everybody.
My name is White Cloud Woman.
I'm from Malax, where Ojibwepeople here in Ishtenabbe, which
is all across the Great Lakes,I'm a part of the Bullhead Clan,
my English name is ChanelGallagher and my artistic medium
is ceramics.
When I was 18, I moved to NorthCarolina for college.
(01:22):
I first discovered clay atWarren Wilson College and the
first time I touched the Wabagon, which is the Ojibwe word for
clay, there was this sense ofthis nostalgic coming home, like
I've done this before.
Oftentimes we hear this asblood memory.
Sometimes we talk about it withhistorical trauma, but I think
(01:43):
that there's more positivethings that we as Indigenous
people have inherently in bloodmemory.
So when I first touched thatclay when I was 18, there was
something very spiritual thathappens with me, with the earth,
and because of that I didn'tthink that I could do it as a
profession.
I'm doing this because it makesmy heart sing and that I feel
(02:06):
joyful doing it.
I'm not working as a socialworker anymore because I feel
this drive to create and workwith the Wabagon.
For the last 10 years I wasworking as a therapist in the
Minneapolis community.
My specialty would be more of anon-directive experiential
psychodynamic, so working withpeople in art therapy, play
(02:31):
therapy.
My last job was at HomewardBound, which is a shelter here
in South Minneapolis for NativeAmerican adults.
I was the clinical directorthere for a few years building
out their mental health program.
So we had opened up the firstshelter in the state of
Minnesota specifically for adultNative people.
(02:52):
That was my last job, so reallyworking with Native people in a
way that they want to work,because with a lot of these
manualized treatments peoplehave to adhere to a clinical
program and I know that ourpeople don't necessarily want to
be told what to do.
I worked with a lot of childrendoing experiential play therapy.
(03:13):
I worked at an Ojibwe Dakotalanguage immersion school right
here on the South Side calledBidote.
I would work with kids doingclay therapy and oftentimes they
would gravitate towards art orsome sort of experiential medium
like xantra therapy.
We had modeling clay in ourtherapeutic room.
(03:36):
When I was with them in theexperiential play therapy room I
reflected on what they wantedto do when they would go to the
modeling clay or the sand trayor if they wanted to paint.
I was able to see healing in adifferent way with kids as a
therapist.
But you don't have enough timeto do the real work that you
(03:58):
want to do with kids.
That's why I left the fieldabout a year ago, because what I
really want to do is to open upa center here in Minneapolis
and Minnesota McCoy Jay that cancombine healing and the
artistic mediums so that ourpeople can go to a place right
(04:19):
here in South Minneapolis andthey don't have to be diagnosed
with a mental health disorder tohave help or to have healing.
They can go to a place and knowthat they're accepted, no
matter how they come throughthose doors.
I had to leave my profession ayear ago because my idea is to
do it with clay.
I think that there's a realnatural, spiritual thing that
(04:42):
happens when we touch the earthand then make something from the
earth.
There's a lot of power in that.
That's for a year later I'mdoing all my own firings.
I mix all my own glazes.
I learned how to make my ownstudio.
Now I think the social workdegree is going to help me down
the road when I want to open thecenter here in Minneapolis.
(05:04):
Due to colonization, there arepeople that believe that the
Ojibwe people in the Shinabédidn't work with pottery.
That's what I was told when Iwas younger and I took that as a
fact because someone told methat it didn't make sense that
(05:27):
we didn't work with Wabagon theclay, because that comes from
the earth.
There's clay everywhere in thestate of Minnesota, all across
the Great Lakes.
There's this beautiful,beautiful, rich clay.
In the North Shore, gichigamiand river has this gorgeous clay
(05:48):
.
I started listening to myintuition, to my blood memory,
and I started realizing that ofcourse we worked with clay.
You know, tribes across TurtleIsland have always been
connected to the clay and to theland, and so in the last couple
weeks I've been going up to myreservation and I've been
(06:10):
foraging wild clay and I've beentalking to our elders up there.
I had the opportunity to go tothe Science Museum here in St
Paul, minnesota.
There's an anthropologist therethat has a private collection
of woodland pottery and heshowed it to me last Friday.
(06:33):
This is pottery from our peoplehere in this region, and so I
was able to see some of thevessels in the shards and it's
malax pottery.
There's different kinds ofpatterns that we use.
This is pre-contact,pre-colonization.
Sure enough, theanthropologists I told them
people have told me that wedidn't do that and he said
(06:55):
that's so interesting, but whatdid you guys cook with then?
First People's Fund hassolidified that to be an artist
is really an act of courage,every single day To wake up and
not have a nine to five job.
You don't get a check at theend of two weeks or once a month
or every week.
You kind of have to have faiththat what you're doing every day
(07:17):
.
There's a reason why you do itand I think the reason is
because you love it.
But I think, with FirstPeople's Fund, meeting all the
other fellows, seeing thecommunity spirit awardees and
seeing and hearing people'slifelong commitment to their
culture and to their art, thefact that they do it because
they know they need to do it, torevitalize our stories, our
(07:40):
ceremonies, the way we useresources from the earth in a
more sustainable way there's somany teachings in being an
artist that for me, it's more ofa way of life.
I want to interact with theworld in a different way.
I don't want to be a colonizedsocial worker that diagnoses
someone with a mental healthdisorder that was created by
(08:03):
non-native people.
I want to work with clay andour people, and I want to use
the land in a sustainable wayand share that.
It's about being one with theearth, one with our family, one
with our community.
So it's been a challenge tocall myself an artist, for sure,
but the clay has always beenconnected to me, and the people
(08:24):
as young as two all the way upto 90, can make something with
clay.
I love that, and so my projectthat I proposed was to buy my
own kiln and open my own studiowhere native people can come and
work for free, so trying tocreate more access and equity in
the contemporary field ofceramics, especially here in
Minneapolis, because we have alarge urban Indian population
(08:47):
and when you go to thesecommunal studios you don't see
any native people.
I hope to revitalize WoodlandPottery, especially for the
Ojibwe and the Shnabe peoplehere in the state of Minnesota,
so that we can learn ourtechniques, similar to the
Kueblos down in the Southwest,they've tapped all of their
beautiful pottery traditions,and up here we've kind of lost
(09:12):
it, and so my goal is torevitalize that, and then it may
take 20 years.
This may be my life's work, andI'm okay with that.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
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.
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