Marshall Fabrics is commissioning Indigenous artists to create designs to be carried in its stores. A new pattern by a different artist will be released every six months in limited edition rollouts.
Manitoba-born artist Carrie Okemaw, who now lives in Edmonton, is the first to have her designs printed on limited edition fabrics at Marshall Fabrics.
"I need to see it to believe it, 'cause I'm still in a state of shock," said the self-taught designer, who has ties to both Manto Sipi Cree Nation and the Ojibway community of Berens River First Nation in eastern Manitoba. "Everybody really likes it. It's bright and it's colourful and it's happy, and it's got the strawberries on it, which is very important in the Indigenous culture," she said."We do sell a lot of Indigenous prints in our store, but a lot of the companies that are making Indigenous prints are not using Indigenous artists," she said.Being part of the process"We were kind of looking for each other at the same time," said Okemaw, who now lives in Edmonton.