Fall Gathering 2024

September 14, 2024
Drumheller, AB

Thank you!

The Alberta Museums Association wishes to extend our thanks to all presenters, volunteers, guests, and award recipients for making the 2024 Fall Gathering such a success! Congratulations again to all the award recipients. To learn more about current and past award recipients, please visit the Awards Program webpage. We would also like to thank the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology for making this event possible through their generous support as host. We want to extend a special thank you to the Indigenous Empowerment Fashion Collective for sharing their work with us through a spectacular fashion show in Dinosaur Hall!

[Fashion Show in Dinosaur Hall. Design by Rhonda Johnson. Credit: Katy Whitt Photography 2024]

[Left to Right: Meaghan Patterson, Executive Director, Royal Alberta Museum; Lisa Making, Executive Director, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology; Jennifer Forsyth, Executive Director / CEO, Alberta Museums Association; The Honourable Tanya Fir, Minister of Arts, Culture and Status of Women; Jason Kwong, Senior Policy Advisor, Ministry of Arts, Culture and Status of Women; Elder Gerald Sitting Eagle, Siksika Nation. Credit: Katy Whitt Photography 2024]

Thank you for joining us to connect, explore the Drumheller Valley, and celebrate the work of the amazing sector we support! 

Get to Know the Designers

Heather Bouchier Designs

Heather Bouchier (Seeseequasis) is proudly Plains Cree from Beardy's & Okemasis' Cree Nation (Treaty 6 Territory) in Saskatchewan.

She attended the Academy of Fashion Design in Saskatoon and has been sewing since 2001.

In 2013, Heather showcased her first collection at Western Canada Fashion Week as an emerging designer. Since then, she has gone on to showcase all over North America, Japan, and has dressed for red carpet events such as Toronto International Film Festival, the Juno Awards, and the Canadian Screen Awards. Her designs feature many up-cycled and sustainable materials blended with traditional techniques such as beadwork, horsehair, and dentalium shell work. Finding ways to incorporate traditional and modern, Heather has been working with 3D printing dentalium shells and incorporating into them her work.

Currently, Heather runs her own business providing jewelry, alterations, bridal wear, couture, custom sewing, costumes, and cosplay. She is also the Creative Director of the Indigenous Empowerment Fashion Collective in Edmonton.

Acahkos Designs (Rhonda Johnson)

Rhonda Johnson is a First Nations fashion designer who hails from the Treaty 8 Bigstone Cree Nation in Northern Alberta. After completing Fashion Design & Apparel Production in 2006, she took personal time off and spent many years refining her design skills and caring for her children. Now that her children are older, she is again embarking on new design endeavours.

Rhonda has travelled across Canada providing personal development, sewing and fashion workshops, along with fashion shows. She has provided shows for well-known conferences, galas, and events as well as running her small niche sewing business. Rhonda designs under her label, Acahkos Designs, which is the Cree word for Star - designing traditional and contemporary clothing, regalia and couture fashion as well as jewelry and various wearable art. She combines new and old techniques in her design process, experimenting with print, texture, drape, hand, and shape, always striving to create new, innovative designs that have an intelligent cultural design aesthetic, as well as function.

 Brave Woman Designs (Jamie Medicine Crane)

Jamie Medicine Crane is the creative force behind Brave Woman Eco-Designs, a clothing line inspired by the beauty of Blackfoot and Indigenous history, and experiences both traditional and contemporary while respecting Mother Earth and recycling materials. Ahksistowaki (Blackfoot word meaning Brave Woman), also known as Jamie Medicine Crane, is the owner of Brave Woman Designs™ and founder of Brave Woman Botanicals, specializing in natural healing products for your mind, body, and spirit.

Her name was given to her by her great auntie, the late Dr. Helen Many Fingers. Jamie is Blackfoot from Kainai & Piikani Nations in Alberta; Jamie Medicine Crane is an educator, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and musician.

Jamie was the first Native woman to run in Miss Universe Canada 2003 and was awarded Miss Congeniality; she also received the title Miss Blackfoot Canada and was a semi-finalist in the Miss Indian World competition. Jamie has been recognized with numerous awards including the YWCA Canada's Ann Mowatt Outstanding Young Woman Award, YWCA Lethbridge Young Woman of Distinction, Alberta Colleges Provincial Award for Creating Excellence, an Esquao Award-Woman of Distinction from the Institute for Advancing Aboriginal Women, Aboriginal Council of Lethbridge, and Blackfoot Art Award by the Blackfoot Cultural Society. Jamie was selected to represent Canada in the YWCA's World Council held in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa in 2007, and recently has been elected to the YWCA World Board, as the first Indigenous woman. She is a former vice president on the YWCA Canada Board and has been teaching for ten years.