Once you got your design onto the--
onto the bark, it's fairly easy to start etching your design.
Yeah.
I was just--
I was just kind of messing with some little strips of bark,
and I had some--
you know I drew some little animal designs into it.
And then I--
I etched it out and then came back and looked at it,
and it looked really nice.
And so I just kept going from there.
So I'm going to do like a leaf pattern on this border
here for this next project I'm working on.
When you harvest your bark in the spring or the winter,
it leaves this brown layer on that you're able to etch into.
Once you get into it, you kinda just
forget about everything you've done today, all your problems.
And then if you kind of do mess up,
you can just always add a little more
and incorporate your mistakes into your work.
So this little piece here is going to be a--
a border on a--
on a larger wall piece.
Maybe like this little bird would be up in here
if this was a tree or something, you know.
So I'll just add little--
I'll keep adding pieces as I go to the scene.
Like I was showing you there, I just leave the birch bark
down on--
on the pan-- on the back there.
And then I--
I put different little pieces of spring bark over it.
And I have the--
I have the grandfathers down in the bottom
with the seven fires.
And we've got our ancestors who are--
who have made their journey into the great spirit up here in--
up in the sky.
And it's got a nice floral border.
This art form isn't anything new in our culture.
You know, hundreds of years of people have been,
you know, utilizing spring bark, and even thousands
for utilizing birch bark.
It's such a versatile medium.
You can use it from--
you know, as artwork.
They use it as for housing.
After you would pass on and go on your journey,
they would wrap you in birch bark.
And so it's kind of like a--
you know, from conception to death,
birch bark is part of the-- the Anishinaabe culture and way
of life.
Anishinaabe people like to say, you know,
when you go out into the woods that's the Anishinaabe Walmart.
You can get all your resources and everything
you need out there.
I started making baskets and winnowing baskets
for wild rice, and then like, you know,
berry-picking baskets.
And then, one day, I had a basket that wasn't finished,
and I think one of the-- it might have been my daughter
or my nephew were running around with the basket on their head,
then I thought to myself, you know,
if I put a brim on that, that'd look like a top hat.
This is kind of a--
more of a fancy one here.
It's got the spring bark brim on it.
It's got a nice big braid of sweet grass.
It has some silver work on the sides.
It has the bear, the mukwa, on this side here.
And we've got the ma'iingan, the wolf on that side there.
This is the hat my daughter wears.
She's the Red Cliff princess for their--
for their pow wow they had last summer.
I really like it because, you know,
when someone asks me, like who's hat are you wearing?
Who made that?
I get to say that my dad made it,
and I get to answer all their questions, like who is he?
Where's he from?
All that.
So it's like a personal thing.
Like I-- you don't see many people with a birch bark hat
on.
You know, if you see someone with a birch bark hat
you know it's us Savage girls dancing.
PHILIP SAVAGE: And I kind of moved into the ball cap style.
Here on this one I did a dragonfly by the flowers here.
I've got some arrows on the side.
A lot people like the feathers on the back of this one,
the head dress style.
I got a dream catcher on the side.
I also like to do work on the bottoms of the brims.
They are pieces of art, but they're also wearable.
So it's kind of up to you what you want to--
if you want to stick it in the curio cabinet or wear it.
I mean they're functional.
You know, and if you're out in the lake and drop
your hat in the water, it'll float.
You won't lose it in the wind.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's nice seeing people wearing their stuff around.
Makes you feel proud.
Makes you feel like you've contributed something.