The Thompson Regional Community Centre was the scene of the 2016 Artist, Crafter, and Small Business Expo Nov. 6, featuring photographers, artists, knitters, service providers and distributors from Thompson and across Northern Manitoba.
Many attendees were veterans of both the expo and their craft: Doreen Asplund has sold her sewn, knitted and baked crafts at the expo since its inception in 2012, but she has been making and selling crafts for the better part of 50 years. A first-time participant was local artist Bronte Hendren, who has been producing art for little more than a year, and was using the expo to jump-start her selling platform, Canvas Beauty by Bronte
Rodney Forbes came all the way from The Pas for the third year as Forbes Forest Finds, carrying medicinal plants such as chaga to natural lip balms and wild rice products harvested from deep in the province’s backcountry.
While Forbes mainly sells on the export market, he notes that the expo has been a growing part of his income. “The first couple of years they get to know you, then they start to come for your product.”
A unique participant at the expo was 85-year-old author Murray Harvey from The Pas, who was selling his novel “From This Valley.” The book follows the fictionalized adventures of his great-grandfather, who Harvey described as somewhat of a family enigma. In the book, Harvey’s grandfather begins serving in the U. S. Army under General George Custer, whom he soon deserts, and flees to Manitoba, paving the way for an examination of plains Cree and Métis history, the loss of the buffalo, and how they migrated to the centre of Manitoba.
“There’s elements of racism, how people lived back then, what they had to put up with, stuff like that,” Harvey noted.
Harvey hopes to write five more books, creating a family chronicle stretching from his grandparents’ generation to his own.
