“My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.”

-Louis Riel, Métis Revolutionary

Quill Basket

Handcrafted by Mi’kmaq Quillwork Artist Raven Algwimu of Elsipogtog First Nation

Each harvest was taken with the utmost respect, gratitude and understanding of the great sacrifice of these living beings, before or after each harvest tobacco was offered, a prayer was said, and a song was sung. It’s made of porcupine quills, birchbark, sweetgrass, sinew, and bear grease. I harvested the porcupine quills from a porcupine that had been hit by a car; I cleaned, organized, and dyed the quills myself. The bark was harvested from a birch tree during spring when the bark is most suitable for basketry, canoe making, wigwam making, and many other bush crafts that depend on the bark's strength. Birch trees pull up water from their roots and convert it into sap stored within its bark, it causes the birch’s bark to thicken as it holds all the nutrients the tree needs to nourish its budding leaves during spring. The sweetgrass was harvested from New River Beach in the Bay of Funday within Mi’kma’ki at the end of summer during sweetgrass picking season. The entire basket is finished with bear grease I refined myself with bear fat I recieved from a Wəlastəkwew hunter. I lather bear grease on the basket at least once a year in order to preserve it’s color and beauty. I keep the basket stored inside a box and put away so it still smells like sweetgrass and looks as beautiful as the day I finished it. Quillwork is a traditional craft that Mi’kmaq people have practiced since time immemorial and kept alive after all these years.

If you’d like to know more about this basket and Raven as an artist please contact her at raven@junnygirl.com

This quill basket has yet to find a permanent home and is still available.

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Quilled Projects