In September 2022 Cree beadwork artist, Cynthia Boehm visited Orkney, held a beadworking workshop and gave a talk in Stromness. She came to trace her Orcadian ancestry and connect to her Orcadian heritage. Cynthia’s great- great-grandfather was Donald Sinclair from Orkney, but that is all she knew of him. During Cynthia’s visit we were unable to find any Sinclair family connections but I hope by sharing her story we will be able to explore a little further and maybe find some distant relatives.
Donald Sinclair was born in Orkney in 1850 and went to Canada to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company. As often happened, Donald settled in Canada and married a local woman called Margaret Budd and they had two sons, Stanley Alexander Sinclair (Cynthia’s great- grandfather) and John Sinclair who were both born in York Factory. The family later moved to Norway House where they settled.
Cynthia’s career as a beadwork artist grew from her love and appreciation of historic Cree-Métis beadwork, in particular the historical art of her home community Norway House, Manitoba. This was only strengthened when Cynthia discovered her grandmother’s beadwork art, which is housed at the Manitoba Museum. This discovery prompted her to extensively research the historical beadwork and embroidery patterns of her Cree-Métis ancestors, through museum collections.
Stromness Museum has an excellent collection of Cree beadwork from Norway House. These pieces were taken back to Stromness by William Henry Watt as gifts for his family and is on long term loan. Personal objects such as beadwork have strong connections to their homeland, even though they are geographically distanced. It was an emotive experience to be able to introduce Cynthia to these pieces from Norway House and hear what she had to say about the traditional designs and the colours of the beads. Another connection with Canada was made by Cynthia donating a piece of her own beadwork to the Museum collection. It will take pride of place in the cabinet alongside its beadworking ancestors.
If you would like to hear more about the beadwork collections at the Museum and our Canadian connections, visit https://stromnessmuseum.org.uk/sites/stromnessmuseum.org.uk/files/hbc/index.html where you will be able to listen to Cynthia talking about the Norway House beadwork on our Orkney and the Hudson’s Bay Company Resource, which is part of our Museums without Walls initiative.
