A flight attendant from Kahnawake, a First Nations Mohawk Territory reserve in Quebec, says she is still overwhelmed after a video of her gifting Rihanna an Indigenous beaded lanyard went viral online.
Lily Kahnerahtiio Dailleboust, a Kanien’kehá (Mohawk) woman, says the moment carries far more meaning than a simple exchange.
“There’s shares, and shares, and shares and comments — I can’t keep up,” she said, describing the flood of attention on social media, where the video has drawn hundreds of thousands of views.
Dailleboust, an Air Canada flight attendant, met Rihanna on a flight from Toronto to Montreal on June 1.
“It actually turned out to be a unique situation because I was the first Mohawk, Kanien’kehá person that she met,” she told Global News.
She said the two connected in part over shared Indigenous roots.
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“She has Indigeneity in her as well, so just to be able to relate on that level I think is really amazing,” Dailleboust said.
She said the decision to gift the lanyard was intentional, meant to highlight her culture and community. “(I wanted) to share my community, share my people and share our heritage and culture.”
In Kahnawake, beadwork and gift giving hold deep cultural significance. Resident Kenneth Deer said decorative work predates colonization.
“Before European contact, we would dress our leather with shells, porcupine quills and bone, and after contact we got beads,” he said.
Tekaronhiahkhwa Margaret Standup, a local shop owner, said Kahnawake is known for its distinct style.
“We do a specific kind of beadwork. We do a Haudenosaunee raised beadwork. It’s quite different from (other) communities,” she said.
Some say showcasing Mohawk beadwork on a global stage is especially important, given its history.
“They discarded our artwork before, and now our artwork is popular, and now the settlers are taking our symbols and art and they’re making money out of it,” Deer said.
Dailleboust said those realities are never far from mind. “It makes you feel sad, it makes you feel proud, it makes you feel hurt because, you know, it took a lot for our people to get to where we are,” she said.
She said she plans to continue sharing and highlighting her culture every chance she gets.
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