49 Design

06/02/2026

New Printer. Working on some prototypes. Pretty cool. Prints dimensional prints - that's why it looks like actual beads.

05/30/2026

I'm a residential day school survivor. I won't compare AI and the ever rising technology to that, the pain of those schools is not a metaphor, and I won't make it one. But the history of residential schools is also full of the people I come from: Blackfoot leaders, clear-eyed people who saw exactly what was bearing down on them. They weren't naive. They understood that to resist everything, all at once, was to be fought until there was nothing left. So they made impossible choices, not because they wanted to, but because they were trying to keep their people alive in a world that was changing without anyone's consent.
My great great grandmother Rosie Davis was the first Residential School pupil on our reserve. She was the first to graduate. The first to learn English. She did a lot of firsts. People told her, English is bad. Those schools are bad. She persisted nonetheless. Her husband on the other hand, Charlie Davis, never went to residential schools, he refused to speak English, and he tried his best to keep traditional ways as much as possible. Yet somehow they all generally lived peacefully among each other. The people of my reserve had different opinions on how to handle the onslaught of change, much like we find ourselves rapidly enveloped in change.
I think about that when I see how quickly we judge each other now for how we meet change.
Change doesn't arrive like a wave you can see coming. It envelops you little by little. And each of us gets to decide how to meet it. Some resist all of it. Some resist a few things and accept the rest. Some embrace it. Every one of those is a legitimate way to stand in the world. But this is true of all of them: whatever you choose, the change still asks something of you that you never agreed to give.
So I've grown wary of casting judgment on people simply trying to make the best of it, trying to adapt enough not to be washed over, while holding onto enough to still be themselves. When we refuse a change, it's worth asking what replaces the opportunity it carried. When we accept one, it's worth asking what it's quietly costing us.
There's a fine line between how much to resist and how much to adapt. The people I come from walked it with more at stake than I will ever face. The least I can do is walk it thoughtfully, and extend the same grace to everyone else trying to find their footing. I have found judging others for how they do or don't adapt to a world they didn't choose uses a lot of energy I could be spending in better ways.

05/29/2026

For my Blackfoot fam:

05/29/2026

New lined printed beadwork vests:
Women's : https://49dzine.com/collections/womens-sleeveless-suit-vest
Men's: https://49dzine.com/collections/mens-sleeveless-suit-vest

05/27/2026

Non-Profit organizations that represent "all Indigenous" in Canada shouldn't expect funding from the federal government when they have proven time and time again that they make poor decisions (such as not using the federal funding they already received for the grantees who were supposed to receive it, paying CEOs exorbitant salaries and bonuses, not properly consulting First Nations for programs, among a host of other possible issues).

Treaty obligations extend ONLY to First Nations. There is no promise of federal funding to non-profit organizations regardless of who they serve. If they don't handle the money they are given appropriately, of course the federal government isn't going to give them more.

Anyone who believes that any non-profit organization that has openly taken part in fiduciary malfeasance should receive additional federal funding that is intended for legitimate Indigenous programs is only showing that they continue to support the rampant corruption in Indigenous Country that steals from our communities and people.

05/25/2026

How do style your skirts? Have you seen all of our new designs?

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05/22/2026

I resigned from the Explore Edmonton Indigenous Advisory Circle today. Three years. More than 100 hours of my time. And I want to talk about what that actually looks like from the inside.

It is called an advisory circle. Sounds meaningful. What it actually is, in practice, is Indians on parade. You show up. You lend your name, your knowledge, your community relationships, and your credibility to an organization that uses all of it to look like it is doing the right thing. And you do it for free. While everyone around the table who works for that organization is getting paid.

Here is what three years of free advisory work produced at Explore Edmonton. A strategy document published in 2023 that promised an Executive Director of Indigenous Tourism with a real voting seat on the board. Three years later that position still does not exist. We raised it formally in a resolution to the board on April 17th. The board sent four lines back. No commitment. No timeline. No meeting.

Four lines.

At the 2026 International Indigenous Tourism Conference, which Explore Edmonton co-hosted with $250,000 of City of Edmonton public money, Indigenous operators, Elders, knowledge keepers, and keynote speakers delivered a world class event. When the community experienced harm in the aftermath, as reported by CBC News, Explore Edmonton never advocated publicly for any of us. Not once. When the Advisory Circle raised a formal resolution demanding accountability, the board sent four lines.

And when we pushed back? We were tone policed. Told we were being unprofessional. Called one by one to be managed individually rather than engaged collectively. At least one advisory circle member was confronted on why they could vote for the resolution. That is what happens when Indigenous people stop being decorative and start being inconvenient.

At the conference itself, a thousand delegates from fourteen countries were in that room. The Advisory Circle sat in the audience. Not introduced. Not acknowledged. Not thanked. Not once.

We were in the room and we did not exist.

This is what Indians on parade looks like. We helped for years to make the IITC conference a success for Edmonton, and they didn't even acknowledge us at the event. You get a seat at the table to provide legitimacy. The moment you ask for real authority you become a problem.

I am done being a problem for free.

49 Dzine is growing. Third location on the way. To every Indigenous person sitting on an advisory circle somewhere, working for free, lending your name to an organization that calls you a partner but treats you like an accessory, you are not obligated to keep showing up for people who have decided your time costs nothing.

The community showed up for tourism. Tourism did not show up for the community.

I am going somewhere it will.

-J. Nathan Rainy Chief

05/17/2026

We get a lot of great supporters who love where we are headed and what we are trying to do. But there's also a lot of hate we get because we are trying to make things more accessible, and some people think that threatens their way of doing things. They think it creates more competition. That it's not tradish enough. But the reality is, our people have always been a changing and adaptive people and one of the effects of colonialism is that many things have become inaccessible. Our heat transfers aren't a threat to real artists. They are a tool for those who want to use them in creative ways. There are those who don't have families and communities to help them make things, or they can't afford what they'd like. We try to do things in a way that allow not just crafting to be more accessible, but clothing and fashion that is uniquely Indigenous to be more accessible. There are those who will get it and love and those who won't. And that's ok. The people who don't get it are not our intended customer, no matter how many mean or angry comments they leave.
Our work and the goals we are working toward are meant to benefit everyone, but we always know it isn't everyone's thing and that's not ever what we've tried to do. We've always tried to do what's in our vision of accessibility. And we are so grateful for each and every one of you who gets it. Who is supportive. Who says kind things. Who treats our staff with respect. Who understands our limitations. Who stays through any difficulties. Who sees our humanity, our creativity, and our hard work.

Thank you.

05/10/2026

Many congratulations to my nephew, Brady McDougall, who graduated today. Keeping the family proud.