Gayle Gruben

Gayle Gruben’s work reflects her dedication to causes that are deeply ingrained in community. In 2022, she created an amauti (a woman’s parka with a pouch in which to carry a baby) to memorialize the loved ones identified with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People and to honour their families. Gayle worked closely with families to properly commemorate their loved ones, and the amauti was featured in an exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in November 2022.

Gayle has been an artisan for 33 years, creating traditional Inuit garments with furs and hides. She is Inuvialuk and from Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, in the Invialuit Settlement Region of the western arctic. Gayle credits her discipline to her grandmother and her mother-in-law, who taught her the way to make traditional Inuit clothing, and to the College of the North Atlantic’s Textile and Fabrication program in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where she learned technical skills for pattern-making.

A mother to three adult children and grandmother to six grandchildren, Gayle is proud to share her Inuvialuit culture and traditions with anyone willing to learn. She had lived in many different provinces throughout her life before making Steinbach, Manitoba her home.

Join Gayle at Manitou a bi Bii daziigae on April 19, 2023 for Indigenous Food, Fashion, and Music: an RBC Reaction by Collision Community Event and encounter Inuit fashion right here in the heart of Canada. For more information, check out the program post for the 2023 RBC Reaction by Collision.