Just a Sewing Machine Project

Helping to continue culture in a northern community

In Northern Canada, sewing machines and creating warm clothing is an essential way of life to help conquer the extremely cold temperatures throughout the year. Please consider a donation to support the First Nation community of Aklavik in the Northwest Territories so that they are able to create long-lasting clothing and pass on long-lasting cultural traditions.

To many, a sewing machine is something that they learned to use at school. It is not something that remained a critical part of survival or life. If you go to any mall and see where most buy their clothes, little thought is given to utility; most is given to “looking good” and what is the next trend or brand of clothing. There is, in most part, no connection towards sewing being an integral part of one’s culture or having to sew as a necessity for life.

About Aklavik, Northwest Territories

Aklavik is a First Nation and Inuvialuit community located approximately 55 Kms west of Inuvik, NT and 3,200 kms north of Edmonton, Alta. Year-round access is only possible by air, with ice road access possible by driving the frozen McKenzie River during the winter.

The community is the home of 620 residents, of which approximately 65% have to rely on traditional food gathering; hunting, fishing and trapping, and traditional skills such as sewing to survive. For most of the community, there is no going to the store to buy what they need; they go out on the land to get it, or make the clothing and items themselves.

The Sewing Circles

In times past, sewing was a time for the community to come together, and “with needle and thread,” make the clothing to protect the members from the harshness of winter. Summer and fall, it was time to harvest the animals and prepare the skin, and fall and winter was the time to make all the clothing and items that survival depended upon.

Today, the need for, and the practices have not changed; but the practices have incorporated “modern technology,” the sewing machine, when people have been able to go together and buy one, or one has been handed down through the generations. And this brings us to; Is it only a sewing machine?

It it Just a Sewing Machine?

It is not just a sewing machine, it is an integral part of the community life. It not only provides an opportunity to make life a little easier by allowing mechanical means to enter into improving quality of life, but it has become a symbolism for a community gathering to not only make the necessities for life, but a way to pass the culture from one generation to another.

Conclusion

Is it just a sewing machine? No, it is not. The request totalling $9,189.71 will provide for much more than that. The funds will not only provides an opportunity to make life a little easier by allowing mechanical means to enter into improving quality of life, but sewing is a symbolism for community gathering to not only make the necessities for life, but a way to pass the culture from one generation to another. We hope you will see this as an exciting opportunity to help a First Nation community.