A B O U T J A N E Y
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
~Pablo Picasso
Janey Chang (she/her) is an Artist + Educator, Fish Skin Tanner + Revivalist, Mother + Human Being on a path of remembering how to be human and alive through the (re)learning of ancestral skills. She is a first generation Chinese Canadian woman living on beautiful Skwxwú7mesh, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Territory at the foot of the mountains and close to the ocean. Many of her teachers and mentors have taught her what it means to truly connect to the land in deep ways that have encouraged her to explore her own cultural heritage. The complex layers of her sense of identity are in a constant state of unraveling as she explores connections to her own human-ness and how she engages with the world and people around her. She tells stories through her art using materials from nature, with a focus on environmental conservation and her love for salmon. She has had the honour of teaching classes and workshops to all ages on fish skin leather, plant fibre cordage + weaving, natural dyes, fire craft, hide tanning, wilderness survival skills, leather tooling, coal-burned spoons, and more. She interweaves personal stories and encourages self-reflection in her experiential classes. Janey is new to fly fishing and it has quickly become her meditation, inspiration and complement to her art practice.
Through her art and teaching practice, she deepens her relationship with nature by working intimately with materials including salmon skin, cedar bark and wood, buckskin, stinging nettle, willow, and birch bark to name a few. She is passionate about helping people to connect with nature, culture and community and firmly believes that creativity is essential to living a full and joyous existence. Making things with her own hands and spending time in the mountains occupies her thoughts and life on a regular basis. Some recent projects include working in the Film Industry as an Ancient Technology Specialist and Advisor building specialized earth-based props for the AppleTV Show “SEE”, and teaching traditional hide tanning to a Skwxwú7mesh Language Immersion Class. Her main focus is on fish skin tanning and her workshops have been taught in 18 countries, virtually and in person with most of her teaching time spent in remote Indigenous communities in the subarctic.
