A Siksika woman is using the holiday season to spread Indigenous culture.
Laura Asham got started creating puppets several years ago while helping her daughter prepare for a talent show at school.
“So I asked if she wanted to do puppets, and I told her I would make them,” she said.
“I saw some tutorials on the internet on how to make puppets, so I kind of combined three different types then made my own pattern and went from there.”
The first puppet took about 11 hours to build — which was done over two days.
Some of the patterns Laura Asham uses to create her puppets. (Livia Manywounds/CBC)
Then Asham realized the puppet would need an outfit to wear.
So she enlisted the help of her sister Sheila Frank — a seamstress — who offered tips over the phone.
“I started doing little samples, seeing how things would fit, and within a week we finally got our fully-clothed puppet,” she said.
Soon after, Asham started getting requests from community members for puppets.
Some of the puppets created by Laura Asham. (Livia Manywounds/CBC)
“It was something neat to see because they’d never seen anything like it and they thought it was a good idea,” she said.
“Right away daycares started buying them, and schools.”
She also received praise from elders in her own community and several surrounding ones.
“They thought it was the neatest thing to see, then to see the regalia I put on them,” she said.
“They were saying it showed they were little native kids. It felt good coming from elders from all these different Nations. It made me feel really good.”
Asham says the holiday season is now one of her busiest times for orders.