Innu Tea Dolls  For people on the move, space to carry things is always at a premium. When the hunting people of Sheshatshut are traveling, everyone has to carry his or her share of the load, children included. This is the origin of the Labrador Tea doll, which is now-a-days more of a collector's item than a child's play-toy.

Tea dolls are made just the same as their rag doll cousins, with the materials commonly available at home. Bodies are sewn of plain broadcloth and faces and hands made of either broadcloth or home - smoked Caribou skin.

Innu families and family groups would remain for months at a time in the interior of Labrador, trapping, hunting and fishing. while at the trading post in North West River, mothers would sew up dolls, filled with the precious tea, as they would invariably run out of tea and it was important for the woman to have tea for their men.

Tea dolls were intended to be carried by the children as toys and would hold two or three pound of loose tea, providing a good method of storage. If the tea was removed , the doll could be re-stuffed with rags, leaves or grass.

Dolls filled with tea are common from Sheshatshut, but another Innu craft item, a traditional - style hat with beaded ear pieces, was commonly stuffed with tea in Davis Inlet. Filling dolls with tea is not known among Quebec bands of Innu, but the Labrador bands were more recently hunters and only since the 1950's have not been migratory, so memory of crafts related to nomadic life would be stronger here.

The people interested in buying Labrador tea dolls are not just looking for a souvenir. They usually regard the doll as a treasured item and display it proudly.

Relatively few of these handmade dolls are available; Labrador's Innu are the only source.   

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Last modified: March 15/ 2001