Traditions and collectibles
Deh Cho dolls reflect a piece of history

Derek Neary
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 16/98) - The Deh Cho region now has a doll that exhibits a piece of traditional Dene culture.

Nats'enelu, a Fort Simpson-based, Dene-style fashion business, is contracting local craftspeople to produce the culturally-significant dolls. "(The idea) originally came from some of the local Dene women," said D'arcy Moses, Nats'enelu's primary designer.

"Barb Tsetso was instrumental in getting it off the ground."

Moses said he hopes 100 to 150 of the dolls will be fabricated, about 40 of which are already available. Ideally, three or four women in each Deh Cho community will be involved in the production process, he said.

Each doll comes with its own name, a description, and information about the craftsperson who made it.

The price tags on the dolls will range from $350 for a more simplistic design while the precedent has already been set for the spectacular dolls as one has sold for more than $1,000, Moses noted.

"Frankly, it's just to pay the producer well. One doll can take hours and hours and hours of labour," he said, adding that the dolls are also collectors items.

"It's the fact that they're heavily embellished with beadwork and porcupine quill work," he said.

"They look historic... and it's a surviving doll tradition that was lost."

Funding, through Human Resources Development Cananda, has been secured for Nats'enelu to research the origins and styles of doll-making in the Deh Cho communities.

"The idea is that we'd go and meet with elders and craftspersons in the community and discuss these dolls to see if anyone has any remembrance or any ideas or what had been made.

"If not, then (we'll) train people how to produce them. That way... they can produce them, we'll buy them and then we turn around and, hopefully, we sell them."