About ✨

Tânisi ekwa tawow: My name is Alexis, and at the moment I make and sell beadwork and other artwork for a living under the business name taapway (Northern Michif), which loosely translates to "good job" in English.

I'm mixed Metis (Anne Bruce & Jemima Murray from Seven Oaks/Kildonan/Red River), Saulteaux/Ininew and Scottish (Alfred Cook, Annie Cook, and Hazel Adair/Allarais/Cook) from St. Peters/Kinosota-Ste. Rose), Scottish (Morley MacDonald from Prince Albert), German-Jewish(ish) (Myrle Thomas from Milwaukee, WI), and English(ish) (Thomas Miller from Ontario), and I was born and raised in central Winnipeg, in a poor neighbourhood, in a family that struggled with most things. Sometimes I make references to this and sometimes I go into detail about one or another part of it in between sharing beadwork photos on Instagram, but it isn't something I like people to focus on.

I learned how to bead in 2012 from another Metis woman (Carole Frechette, who is Michif from St. Malo) who went on to teach me what she learned from her mom about our ways of making clothing and beadwork; it meshed with what my mom had already tried- sometimes successfully, even- to teach me about embroidery, loom beading, and painting. I made things- moccasins and mitts, mostly- for family, friends, and community for a decade before illness put me in the position of needing to support myself from home and I decided that selling beadwork was something that might be possible. 

Since 2021 I've taken what I know about making bigger pieces and translated that into making earrings and smaller pieces of jewelry, and despite some long pauses (I've had breast cancer twice since 2023 and lost my mom in early 2026) our beadwork is something that I love to make and to see people enjoy 💖. 

I'm also really nerdy about the history of seed beads, and about art and the politics behind it in general. 

My designs are my own: I don't copy archived beadwork or old family pieces that belong to other families: I believe that those old pieces were made by someone in a family and in a community that are still present. This is my opinion, and I understand that it may be contentious but I want to be very clear about where my art practice intersects with my Indigeneity.

Êkosani for being here, and if you have other questions please ask: I am very open about who I am and where I come from 💖.