Our Collective
The collective now includes all the Fox sisters. We each bring a different energy to our beadwork, but all of us are inspired by our great-grandmother and her beadwork. Madison currently lives on the traditional territory of the Huron Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Anishinaabe in the Katarokwi (Kingston) area. Taylor & Montana live on th unceded and Occupied Coast Salish territory of the sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations (Vancouver).We have a colourful ancestry story! Our paternal lineage is British/Scottish descent and have been in the Kingston area for at least the last 5 generations. In our maternal lineage we are mixed Acadian and Anishinaabe (Ojibwe). We are proud to continue to reclaim aspects of culture that have been taken away from our family. For each of us, beading is an integral part of that reclamation journey. Over time each of us has built our own relationship with the beads; we don't think of them as "inanimate objects". For us, they come alive and they are a portal to both the past and the future.
Taylor Fox, Co-Founder, Bead Weaver
Learning to bead is my greatest COVID-19 silver lining. When the pandemic hit I was living in Quebec and I lost my job. I moved home to Kingston to live with my mom and Madison until we knew more about the pandemic next steps. I started beading some moccasin vamps but kept having dreams about fringe earrings! I started to shop around for them, find beaders on instagram and get lost in the mesmerizing patterns. My dreams persisted though - they were getting stronger and were showing me new patterns and colours. Finally I got a few materials, pulled up some youtube tutorials and learned! I was immediately hooked. I essentially locked myself in my room for 2 weeks and just kept beading - often forgetting to eat or go outside. I have healthier practices now but the pull to the beading table has never subsided. I genuinely am in love with this art form. The beads have taught me patience, potentiality, and presence. I don’t know how to explain it other than to say; these designs are like portals.. They open up new channels in me.. They inspire new ways of thinking for me. I hope to share this sentiment and offering to all of you.
Madison Fox, Co-Founder, Bead Weaver
My beading journey began in September 2020 when Taylor taught me. I immediately fell in love, despite how it tested my patience. It began as a hobby and creative outlet but it very quickly became my way of grounding, my meditation, and my reconnection to my culture and ancestors. Beadwork acted as a gateway to this reconnection for me, and once I began, I couldn’t turn it off. Something happened through the weave of each bead… a journey of intense and beautiful healing. Between the grounding, meditative state I enter while I bead, creating handmade jewelry using my great grandmother's beads and deep conversations with my sister while we bead together, I found myself on an intense, emotional journey to restoring the culture within me. As a white facing indigenous woman, raised in a middle-class household I have always struggled with embracing the Indigenous part of myself; feeling as though because I didn’t struggle in the physical way other Indigenous people did, that I didn’t deserve to embrace my own culture. What I have learned is that ancestral trauma doesn’t care what you look like or where you grew up - it is in your bones. This trauma is very real in our family and the beadwork has been a tool for me to work through the energy of it that resides in my body. This is what we mean when we say “with each bead, we weave a brighter future”.
Montana Fox, Bead Weaver, Artist
