Cheryl McLean is a fish skin tanner, teacher and student, having 1st discovered the almost lost skill about 8 years ago.
Cheryl is originally from Northern BC and is of mixed European and Beaver Cree ancestry, although she has not had any real connection to the Beaver Cree community. In 1987, Cheryl left Nanaimo, BC and moved to the Yukon to work in Old Crow. For the first time in her life, she felt she had come home!
In the Yukon, Cheryl was formally adopted by the Annie Smith/Judy Gingell (KDFN) family and has responsibilities within the Gaanaxtedi and Crow clans.
Cheryl retired in 2020 and has since immersed herself in fish skin tanning. Like coming to the Yukon, when Cheryl discovered fish skin tanning, she felt like she had come home.
Cheryl has completed 2 residencies with the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Center ( 2022, 2023) and during that time demonstrated fish skin tanning using a variety of methodologies and tannins, including black tea, green tea, willow, oak gall and oil tanning. Cheryl also experimented with natural dyes and seeing what colors can be created using materials in our environment.
Cheryl has displayed fish leather and fish leather items at two galleries - the Yukon Arts Centre and Adaka (2023)
Cheryl has provided numerous workshops for people interested in learning this traditional skill and in addition to working with the KDCC, has worked in the schools, with the Rivers to Ridges Forest School, with the Council of Yukon First Nations and individual First Nations and was a workshop host at Moosehide in 2022. Cheryl has also mentored and worked with individuals to learn the art of transforming raw fish hide into leather and leather products.
Cheryl is currently developing a SOFT (School of Fish Tanning) with the generous support of the Yukon Arts Fund Micro Grant. SOFT will explore 6 types of fish tanning methodologies, building indigo vats and dyeing with indigo and a variety of other natural dyes.