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Syracuse University senior Rhiannon Abrams hoped that the Indigenous beading club would meet consistently as a registered student organization by this fall. But because of the pandemic, the club neither received a formal meeting space nor university funding, stalling members’ plans.

The club hoped to teach people the Indigenous art form of beading as an RSO. The organization would have been another way to “create community through crafting,” Abrams said.

Though members met less often this semester than they wanted to, the club hopes to incorporate Zoom and make the club’s meetings and projects online-only, Abrams and sophomore Kalani Bankston said. But the transition to online could be difficult, as it takes days to complete beading projects such as moccasins.

Students who occasionally met to bead together formed the idea for the club, Bankston said. Eventually, the students thought of turning beading into a formal student organization at SU. At least 15 people were interested in the club when Abrams started the application process for becoming an RSO.

“I started the process hoping that, next year, that the club would be a space for anyone who wants to bead and hangout, and anyone who wants to learn how to bead can come and learn,” Abrams said. “I feel like a lot of students don’t get beading experience unless they have someone in their family.”

When the beading club first started, at least 15 people were interested in joining. Courtesy of Maya Swamp

Some students involved with the club have been beading since before they came to SU. Maya Swamp, an SU junior and member of the beading club, started beading between the ages of 10 and 11. She began learning to bead after her grandmother took her to an activity center that featured beading and quilting. For her, beading has become a form of stress relief and a way to escape the world, she said.

Bankston, a supporting member of the club, described his beading expertise as extensive but said it has only been formalized for a few years.

The club aims to foster inclusion and is meant for anybody who is interested in beading, not just Indigenous people, Bankston said. He hoped that membership in the RSO could also be extended to other students who are not part of SU’s Indigenous Living Learning Community or Native Student Program.

To share knowledge, the club members were planning more activities they could have done together this year, Swamp said. The members hoped to create original pieces through an annual Indigenous fashion show that never occurred due to the pandemic.

The RSO would have been a good way to teach other people how to bead, Swamp said. She was excited to teach members what she knew.

“I would say that beading has become an important part of Indigenous culture and expressing our nations’ style,” Abrams said. “It’s an important Indigenous practice that helps keep us connected.”

Published on November 30, 2020 at 9:54 pm