Mnaajtood ge Mnaadendaan: Miigwewinan Michi Saagiig Kwewag Miinegoowin Gimaans Zhaganaash Aki 1860
To Honour and Respect: Gifts from the Michi Saagiig Women to the Prince of Wales, 1860
Co-Curated by Lori Beavis & Laura Peers
Ontario Museums Association
Award of Excellence in
Special Projects
2024
Council for Museum
Anthropology
Michael M. Ames Prize for
Innovative Museum
Anthropology
2024
In 1860, Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg women at Rice Lake Village in Ontario made beautiful birchbark baskets decorated with porcupine quillwork, as gifts for Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, when he visited their community. In 2023, the baskets came home for a visit, on loan from His Majesty the King, and were exhibited at the Peterborough Museum & Archives. My role in the project was both as co-curator (with Lori Beavis, Hiawatha citizen) and as project facilitator, linking a strong cross-cultural and trans-Atlantic team comprised of Hiawatha First Nation, the Mississauga Nations, Peterborough Museum & Archives, and Royal Collection Trust.
Quilled makakoon exhibited at Peterborough Museum & Archives, 2023. Photo by Laura Peers.
Header image: detail, quilled makak by Polly Soper, 1860. RCT RCIN84306. Image courtesy Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III, 2023.
The Ancestors
Of the 13 porcupine quilled makakoon (birchbark baskets) presented in 1860, 11 of the makers' names are still linked to the baskets. The makakoon take both traditional and innovative forms, including this carpet bag form remade as quill on bark by Margaret Anderson.
Quilled bark handbag by Margaret Anderson, 1860. RCT RCIN 84333. Image courtesy Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III, 2023.
Quill workshops
Led by Sandra D. Moore of Creators Gifts, a team delivered workshops on basic porcupine quillwork skills at six Mississauga Nation powwows, the Peterborough Museum & Archives, and an Indigenous community festival. Over 200 people learned to quill and refined skills.
'We have not forgotten': the legacy piece
Quillwork artist Sandra D. Moore accepted the suggestion of another project Planning Circle member that she should create a work to stay at Hiawatha when the Ancestors returned to England at the end of the loan. Sandra designed the Legacy Piece--and then asked over 700 people to place quills in it.
'We have not forgotten' © Sandra D. Moore, 2023.
To Honour and Respect audience engagement:
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Exhibition visitors: 7,684
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Group tours and special progams at Peterborough Museum & Archives: 48 of which 18 were for Indigenous institutions/mostly Indigenous participants
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Special events in Michi Saagiig communities: 10
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Quill workshop participants: 220 people learned or practised basic quillwork skills. Many workshops were held at Mississauga Nation powwows.
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Legacy Piece: 770 people added quills, most had never quilled before.
