Quillwork decoration detail and quill wrapped fringe on men’s legging, early 1800s. The artist Paul Kane collected these examples of quillwork on research trips to the West in the 1840s and used them as reference for his paintings, created in Toronto. Paul Kane Collection, Manitoba Museum
- Friday, May 6, 2022
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm
- Online or In Person at MAWA, 611 Main St.
Skills repatriation is about restoring Indigenous authority and expertise. Dr. Matthews will talk about working with artists to study and replicate the quillwork techniques found in 200-year-old museum artefacts. This wholly Indigenous medium has been used by Anishinaabe, Ininiw, Métis and Dakota artists in the past to create beautiful, wearable art. How it is used in the present will be up to the Anishinaabe, Ininiw, Métis and Dakota artists who find the magic in this demanding but brilliant practice.
Online broadcasts will feature ASL translation. Auto-captions are available if you watch the lecture with Zoom.
If you are unable to watch the lecture live it will remain posted on our Facebook page. It will also be recorded, closed captioning added and then posted here by the end of May.
Free, everyone welcome! Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85754307354 or watch with Facebook Live. Please wear a mask if attending in person.
-
Until this spring, Dr. Maureen Matthews was the Curator of Cultural Anthropology at the Manitoba Museum, where she made Indigenous collections accessible to artists. She developed beading and quillwork “skills repatriation” projects, actively creating opportunities for museum artefacts to become teachers and mentors. Her recent collaboration with local Métis artists resulted in a large multimedia piece in Storied Objects: Métis Art in Relation at Saskatoon’s Remai Modern.
