The craft of quilling
Workshop at Montague Regional High School offered as part of a reconciliation project art students at the school are doing
Montague Regional High School (MRHS) students got a chance to experience part of another culture by attending a quilling workshop Friday put on by artists from Lennox Island First Nation.
The workshop is part of a reconciliation project art students at the school are doing.
Quill art is an ancient Mi’kmaq tradition where porcupine quills are inserted and sewn into pieces of birch bark.
As part of their ongoing project, students are also creating lino cuts where their individual patterned designs will be printed onto a giant quilt and presented to Chief Brian Francis and the Abegweit First Nation.
“This is a traditional craft that’s on our doorstep. So, it felt like a really good one to do.’’ Kathryn Rajamanie
MRHS art teacher Kathryn Rajamanie said she wanted to introduce something local and educational to her students as part of the project.
“This is a traditional craft that’s on our doorstep. So, it felt like a really good one to do,” she said.
Rajamanie believes her students can benefit from being educated on the difficult history of Indigenous peoples in Canada.
“For the last week we’ve been studying stories of residential schools and the negatives of the past and (exploring) how we can create positives from those negatives and how as a new generation these students can be the next voice.”
She said there are a number of issues she hopes her students gain from the experience of creating quilling art and their reconciliation project as a whole.
“First and foremost, awareness of the beautiful culture they have right beside them. Also, the education of the history. It has opened up some amazing discussions. With my Grade 12s especially, we’ve been able to discuss opinions in our class.”
The workshop was made possible due to an ArtsSmarts P.E.I. grant that MRHS received.
As an elective course, Rajamanie says the art program at MRHS is at risk.
“I’m definitely trying to promote it with the students, so it’s a course that will stay. We can learn a lot of different things through art, and in different ways.”
Marlene Thomas from Lennox Island First Nation headed the workshop. She learned two years ago and has become highly skilled at it. She said a big part of the process is gathering the materials and dying the quills, both of which are time-consuming.
“If it’s right from the start, picking up the quills and tearing down the birch bark, (it takes) probably about four hours,” said Thomas.
Forty-seven students from Grades 10, 11 and 12 participated. Grade 12 student Maddie Bedard-Adam said she gained a deeper understanding of the cultural influence that goes into the designs.
“I appreciate how much detail, time, love and care have gone into all of these things. It’s really amazing what they do.”