Sharon Vittrekwa
“When people wear my pieces, I want them to honour that piece because it honours our past elders and each or our different First Nations – our way of life and all the struggles that we have struggled through and are still struggling through. Wear it with honour and respect.”
Sharon Vittrekwa is a Tetlit Gwich'in artist born in Aklavik, Northwest Territories. She came to the Yukon in 1990, spending time living in Whitehorse and Old Crow. Over the years, she has taught medicine gathering and healing in the communities of Fort McPherson, Dawson City, Old Crow, and Whitehorse in schools, support centres, healing retreats, and offers private lessons.
After helping her grandmother, aunts and other elders with sewing, Sharon learned on her own how to start creating, designing and sewing traditional clothing and hunting gear.
Sharon's last name comes from her grandfather and was one of a very few that was kept before the Anglican and Government came into this country. Vittrekwa means "no cry".