KPU welcomes Pamela Baker as first Indigenous designer-in-residence
Baker will collaborate with students and provide assistance in learning about Indigenous history and artwork
Pamela Baker and one of the clothing pieces she has designed. (Submitted/Austin Kelly)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University named Pamela Baker as the first Indigenous designer-in-residence at the Wilson School of Design last month.
Baker, who is of Squamish and Kwakwaka’wakw heritage, decided to apply for the position after instructors at KPU encouraged her to be part of the university and work as an in-house designer.
Baker, with 35 years of experience in fashion design, seeks to collaborate with students and work on various projects to share her knowledge. She also wants to assist students and faculty in learning about Indigenous history and artwork.
“[I want to] meet with faculty and students about sharing background of some of our artists and our master carvers and weavers,” Baker says. “[As the] designer-in-house, I am going to be doing some laser cutting and, hopefully, collaborating with a lot of students and do a photoshoot.”
She’s also planning to meet with instructors to educate about residential schools and will be collaborating with another design class to get students involved in the packaging for her company, Touch of Culture, TOC Legends Designs and Copperknot Jewelry, to give them some experience.
Baker says positions like this are important for education since KPU’s campuses reside on the unceded and shared territories of Coast Salish Peoples.
“It’s great to be acknowledging the First Peoples and learning our ways and be respectful of the land,” Baker says.
Becoming the designer-in-residence is more than just a professional opportunity, she says, it also provides her with a chance to connect with people on a personal level.
“It’s taking a lot of time out of me designing my collections, which I don’t mind at all because, personally, it’s about the connections with individuals and my ultimate goal has always been to educate the world that we’re still here,” Baker says.
Baker’s “dream collection piece” is a chilkat cape she designed and was displayed in the Museum of Art and Design in New York City in the show Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation Contemporary Native North American Art from the West, Northwest & Pacific.
Baker says while most of her previous design pieces have been inspired by her mother’s Kwakwaka’wakw heritage or her great-great-grandmother’s Tlingit background, her latest collection will shift its focus to her father’s Squamish Coast Salish tribe.
Baker was chosen as one of the top three designers in Canada to design 40 pieces of regalia for the opening ceremony at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.
“The experience was great to be recognized, and I also was representing the Salish, the Squamish because this is the territory [where] the 2010 Olympics happened,” Baker says.
“That gave me the opportunity to contract and give directions to our Squamish members to weave the capes, or do the dentalia necklaces and headpieces.”
Baker, being a minority First Nation woman and entrepreneur, wants to encourage other Indigenous youth to design and learn about their culture and traditions.
Students who want to connect with Baker can reach out to her at pam.baker@kpu.ca.
