Homeward Bound

I'll be heading over to PEI for Abegweit First Nation's 14th Annual Mawiomi (Pow Wow) on June 9 and 10. I don't attend a lot of Mawiomi's but I'm really looking forward to this one. Abegweit is my community and it will be nice to visit family and watch the dancing.

I used to sell my work at the Alderney Landing Farmers Market in Dartmouth and later at the Historic Farmers Market in Halifax. However, ever since my son was born last year I haven't been selling in person. I miss speaking to people about quillwork and explaining my designs and how I gather the materials.

The #1 question I hear is: "Where do you get your quills?" In case you're wondering, I get my quills primarily from roadkill...and yes, there is what I refer to as the "yick factor". However, I'm a firm believer that if you can't handle where the quills come from, you shouldn't be doing quillwork. That being said, on the rare occasion when a live porcupine does waddle by, a blanket thrown and then pulled off will leave you with a blanket of quills and the porcupine with slightly less than the 30,000 it started out with. A much cleaner option but not always as convenient.

At a Mi'kmaq event like the upcoming Mawiomi what I really look forward to is chatting with other Mi'kmaw. I find it a great way to learn about designs and hear stories from other people who know about quillwork. I usually have a display of quills, birch bark, sweet grass and spruce root: all materials I use in my art but which have an incredible array of uses within our culture. You would be surprised what I hear with such fantastic conversation pieces!