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A third-generation Indigenous basket maker is setting the record straight about his craft — it’s a part of his culture, it’s valuable, and artists can make a living off of it.
On Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford defended his government’s changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program, which lowered the maximum amount of grant money students will be eligible to receive toward their tuition from 85 per cent to 25 per cent.
Ford said students are “picking basket weaving courses, and there’s not too many baskets being sold out there.” Instead, they should be investing into their futures and in-demand jobs, he said.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said Spencer Lunham Jr. of the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, northwest of London, who has more than three decades of experience in the craft.
“It’s actually disrespectful to the people that live it every day.”
Spencer Lunham Jr. makes both utility baskets and traditional fancy baskets, he said, the latter featuring intricate colourful designs. (Submitted by Spencer Lunham Jr.)
The days-long traditional process of cutting the black ash tree, splinting and pounding it before eventually weaving it into a basket is his full-time job, he said. Though mostly self-taught, Lunham comes from a family of basket makers. His grandmother was one, as well as his aunt and uncle.
His Aunt Faye was the person who taught him to make his first basket, and that’s all it took.
“I got hooked, and I just took it upon myself to get better and that’s what I did,” he said.
Lunham crafts both utility-style baskets and traditional fancy baskets, he said, with the latter featuring colourful, intricate designs that require a lot of thoughtful planning before weaving.
Using traditional methods to gather and prepare the black ash wood for weaving is a day-long process, Spencer Lunham Jr. said. (Spencer Lunham Jr./Facebook)
He makes a good living off of it, too, he added, selling a couple hundred baskets per year for around $150 to $3,000 each.
“It’s a beautiful art and it’s also a part of our culture,” he said. “I think, as Native people, we’ve lost enough.”
Basket weaving is an important craft, he said, and just one part of a larger phenomenon taking place in Indigenous communities: the revival of their own cultural traditions and languages.
Spencer Lunham Jr.’s baskets can sell for up to $3,000, he said, allowing him to make a full-time career out of the craft. (Submitted by Spencer Lunham Jr.)
Most of his customers are Indigenous people, who understand the true value of the traditional baskets and the work that goes into them, he said, adding that non-Indigenous people also buy his art.
‘What Ford said was wrong’
Lunham also teaches workshops at universities and colleges, along with Indigenous communities across Ontario.
His workshops are always full, he said, and he’s taught “hundreds and hundreds” of people how to make baskets.
One of the most recent baskets that Spencer Lunham Jr. completed. (Submitted by Spencer Lunham Jr.)
Despite the intense, time-consuming physical work the craft demands, he said, his students never complain and often seem deeply in tune with the process, which he described as “healing” every step of the way.
If post-secondary students in Ontario were truly enrolling in basket-weaving courses at school, it would be a valuable education, he said, and it could, in fact, lead to a successful career once the proper skills are fully developed.
“I’ve done it, I’m still doing it, and I’m doing well financially,” he said. “What Ford said was wrong.”
