Indigenous students learning how to make mukluks in Toronto

Fifteen Indigenous young people will learn how to make mukluks in Toronto, starting this Sunday.

They will be given cowhide, rabbit fur andglass beads. If they choose, they can paint designs on the mukluks instead of doing beadwork.

"The sky is the limit in terms of what you can use to make a mukluk," saysTara Barnes, director of brand development for Manitobah Mukluks,a Winnipeg-based footwear company that is offering the course part of its Storyboot School programat Toronto's Bata ShoeMuseum.

"The concept behind the mukluk is that you use the whole animal. We think learning how to make themis so essential to the survival of this amazing craft."

The aim of the six-week courseis to enable the participants, who were selected after applying online, to go home with a brand new pair ofmukluks they have made themselves.

Manitobah Mukluks calls the Aboriginal footwearthe "original winter boot of North America." Usuallymukluksare up to the knee,soft, created out of natural materials,decorated with beads and lined with fur.

The company has run the course at least once before in Toronto, but this year, it is expanding its offering.

There will be four consecutive courses in all, each consisting of six three-hour sessions. There are spots for 15 students in each course, which means up to 60 Indigenous young people will take part.

"This is the first semi-permanent class," says Barnes. "There's definitely an appeal in walking out with a pair of mukluks that you made yourself."

Speaking to CBC News from Ottawa, Barnes said the company has been able to expand its classes with the help ofa $20,000 grant from the TreadRight Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that supports ancient cultural traditions.

The course is part ofManitobah Mukluks' StorybootSchool, in which Indigenous artists teach students the craft of making traditional footwear by hand. The course and materials are free for thoseselected to participate.

Barnes saysToronto was chosen as a course location because it is "a hub for Indigenous people."

It takes at least 18 hours to make a mukluk longerif the beadwork is intricate. She saysthe beadwork is the most challenging component of the course.

Waneek Horn-Miller, from the Kahnawake Mohawk territory, is Storyboot School's director, and will greet the first batch of studentson Sunday to explain the cultural significance of mukluks.

"It's an age-old footwear made generally by people in the north," Horn-Millertold Metro Morning this week. "Itbasically kept my people alive and able to function in one of the harshest environments in the world."

Starting this month, theBata Shoe Museumhas set aside a display case for five to 10 expertly crafted mukluks available for sale. They rangefrom $300 to $2,800, depending on the labour involved and their cultural significance.

Horn-Miller saysthere in renewed interest in Indigenous art forms."The school is about reinvigorating a traditional art form."

Horn-Millersays she learned beadwork from her mother. "It built internally this sense of pride in knowinghow to do something that my ancestors did."

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