Our quilt incorporates 2 First Nations sections.  My earlier blog discusses the nations that we found within Niagara:  Neutral, Aneshnabeg, 5 Nations Iroquois and the Mowhawk who fought with the British during the War of 1812.  Our focus was on the people who lived in Niagara and who were buried here.

Traditionally, First Nations of this area used mass graves for their burials.  Both the Neutral (known to their Huron neighbours as the Attiwandaronk, were called “la nation neutre” by the French because of their refusal to become involved in the hostilities between the Huron and Iroquois http://www.tbhs.ca/hughes/treasure.html) and Aneshnabeg (including Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Oji-Cree, and Algonquin peoples) 5 Nations Iroquois also know by their indigenous name Haudenosaunee (comprise Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora peoples) The Mohawk joined the confederacy in 1722.

It is believed that outlying bands would gather every 7-10 years, bringing with them their deceased’ carefully wrapped remains, along with treasured artefacts. These would be ceremonially buried in mass graves.  Hence, the distinctive mounds that can still be observed today.  http://niagarafallsmuseums.ca/discover-our-history/history-notes/ossuary.aspx

As the Neutral primarily inhabited the areas of Grimsby through Lincoln and further to the South/Thorold, the left wing of the crow would shelter these sites.

Trial quilting of plaque

Horizontal quilting of plaque

Completed panel

Sign at Centennial Park, Grimsby

Noting the cement covered reburials

The composition comprises the Federal Government’s plaque with information pertaining to the reburial of human remains and artefacts.  Behind are the 6 concrete slabs used to cover the reburials.  In the background are 4 trees photographed behind the plaque – one of which is partly showing behind the sign.

The right wing would cover the Fort Erie section which represented  peoples who travelled freely across the Niagara river:  Aneshnabeg and 5 Nations Iroquois. By all indications, this mound was created when human remains and artefacts were removed during the expansion work on the Peace Bridge at the turn of the new millenium. http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/pet_113_e_28835.html  The First Nations Interpretive Centre and Gallery also known as Mewinzha: A Journey Back in Time, was built at this time.  The clan animals were photographed in the Gallery as they formed a design in the polished stone floor.  We have rearranged the symbols to form a “banner” in our composition.

Beginning the quilting by outlining animals

Section with wildflowers. Working up texture

Banner with more texture

Close up of clan animals

Original image of floor design

During the early part of the millennium I had been completing my undergraduate degree in Canadian Studies and beginning a Masters of Education:  both degrees centred around First Nations peoples of Canada with a focus on the peoples of Southern Ontario.  My research took me into various 6 Nations Iroquois communities where I got to know elders and artists who provided me with invaluable insight into life as it had been historically and during the present.  Concepts that predominated through my journey were Turtle Island (North American continent over which First Nations had the rights and responsibility of protection), Medicine Wheel  which centred around the four directions of the spiritual, emotional, physical and mental, and crow, the protector of the ancestors and vision for present and future.

This textile call for entry “As the Crow Flies” spoke to me on all these levels.

My crow had been partially completed but now all feathers had to be assembled. Stitching seemed the best option for attaching to the silk cloth covering the wood frame.  We were now ready for photography.

Crow form with silk fabric covering

Crow feather anatomy

Assembling allular grouping of feathers

Assembling and stitching lower flight feathers

Close up showing covert feathers

Tail section

Barbara starting her front panels

Port Colborne grave with Canadian Flag

Sizing panels with crow cartoon

Front Panels

Gravestones at Haun, UEL Cemetery on Ott Rd. Stevensville

Now that we have our 6 quilt sections printed, we have under 2 weeks to quilt enough to show our intended vision and submit our entry.  Barbara is keen to learn the technique which I have been experimenting with for some time.  It’s basically a free form smocking stitch which uses any dot or marker to pull the fabric in opposing directions to form various textures.  She is using closer stitches for the grassy areas compared to the larger stitches for the tree foliage.

Haun Cemetary, Stevensville. Gravestones outlined

Splicing quilt backing

Sections of quilt backing cut to fit and stuffed inside pocket

Front sections laid out

Once outlined with stitches, the gravestones were filled.  Barbara has used up to 4 layers of cut and shaped quilt batting to fill the pocket that is created once the backing is carefully spliced.  These will be stitched closed.  The traditional term for this back filling is Trapunto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapunto_quilting

Before we complete, we may consider firming up the gravestones with either a starch product or studio fixative, to prevent the more prominent stones from creasing; however this process will be considered judiciously as we don’t want to take away from the quilted appearance/aesthetic of the work.

Beginning the Vineland and Grimsby cemeteries

Stirling from Grimsby combined with Vineland layout

Many weathered sandstone headstones

Overall layout of the enclosed cemetery

Closing and stitching the backing

Small stones can be filled from the outside and stitched over

My background sections were the Grimsby/Vineland compositions and Niagara on the Lake.  Above I am beginning the Stirling headstone which was digitally added to the composition.  Many of the historic headstones cannot be read due to severe weathering of the soft limestone that was traditionally used before the 20th century.  Some families have replaced these historic stones with newer granite stones; however, we decided that these did not aesthetically work in our composition.

Our rationale in choosing what to photograph lay between people whose own or family name was important in the founding of particular areas of the Niagara Region and the “ordinary” person who did his or her part to found the nation. There were many stones that told stories.  We saw rows of family members, many of whom we presumed were young children when they were buried. These very small headstones frequently had no inscriptions at all.  In the Niagara Falls Fairview cemetery we noticed a naturally shaped stone used as a marker – likely one that was found rather than cut as most were.

Creating feathers with silk fibre and wallpaper past adhesive

The centre vein/quill is formed over a split section of plastic straw

Completed flight feathers

Covering the balsa frame with plastic screen

Finer feathers called “coverts”

Feathers of various sizes

Forming crow body

Crow feather anatomy

Wing feathers

The crow’s body I felt, had to be as accurate in biological structure as I could make it.  I began forming flight feathers and tried a 1/6 vertical section of a plastic straw to form the spine/quill of the feather.  Originally, I had thought this would need to remain, but when the dried “feather” was pulled up from the support it came away, leaving a distinct quill-like ridge down the centre.  I had used white glue to adhere the straw to the silk which left a glossy, raised spine – a fortuitous accident that worked!

At the same time Barbara and I were out in the Region of Niagara photographing various historic cemeteries to find graves that gave us a broad cross-section of people who had lived in Niagara from early settlement and through Confederation – 1867.  From the early United Empire Loyalists of the late 18th century who left the US to escape persecution and to remain loyal to the British crown – no doubt also to seek prosperity in a new land that offered opportunity on through the 19th century.  Later Loyalists were especially among the late Loyalists of the early part of the 1800’s.  We found British (English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh), European (German, Italian, Dutch, Slavic and others), African slaves who followed the “Underground Railroad” into Canada from the US and Chinese who came as labourers to build railways and other infrastructure.

Below are the completed compositions ready for printing. Background merging would be completed once the images were printed.  We used 100% cotton sheeting with no treatment before or after printing.  Our company was Custom Signs & Graphics http://www.niagaracustomsigns.com/ located in Niagara Falls, Ontario.  They were very accommodating, professional and prices within our budget.

Vineland/Grimsby

Niagara on the Lake/Queenston

Port Colborne/Wainfleet

Fort Erie/Stevensville

As well, we determined that a great part of this vision must pay tribute to the First Nations.  Our early research took us to Centennial Park in Grimsby where 373 Neutral bodies had been uncovered in the 1970’s.  A mass grave, along with various artefacts, was formed in the park and a plaque erected by the Federal Government to acknowledge their burial grounds.  This photography would form a section beneath the left wing of the crow. Under the right wing we would place a tribute to the Anishnabeg and 5 Nations Iroquois whose bodies were uncovered during the excavations for the Fort Erie Peace Bridge in the late 20th century.  The Mewinzha (long time ago) Archeological Museum was erected to house artefacts; however there was no mention of the people in the museum.  We travelled to the nearby Fort Erie Native Centre where we were given information and were able to locate the burial site at Fort Erie.  The clan symbols that we photographed at the Museum were composed to form a “banner” beneath the burial mound.

Neutral Site in Grimsby

Fort Erie Anishnabeg and 5 Nations with Mewinzha Museum symbols below

This was not the only evidence of First Nations burials in Niagara.  As well we looked at the St. David’s site (outskirts of NOTL); however there was only a Cairn to acknowledge over 300 burials that had been uncovered in the early part of the 20th Century.  There was also undocumented evidence of burials in the now St. Marks church cemetery in NOTL.  Anecdotal stories tell of this site having originally been First Nations.  Elizabeth Kerr, niece of Joseph Brant (War of 1812 Mohawk ally to the British) was the first gravestone to have been erected in the cemetery.  It was in an older section where the ground was very uneven and mounded.  Our travels also took us to Fort Chippewa where there is a plaque to commemorate the Mohawk warriors who fought with the British in the War of 1812.  The re-enactment employee who helped us with research informed us that a plaque is to be unveiled at Queenston Heights in early October of 2016/this year acknowledging Chief John Norton’s Mohawk warriors who fought with Sir Isaac Brock and General Roger Hale Sheaffe after Brock’s his death.

As we worked on our research, I laid out the feathers of the crow, made more and began the centrepiece of the crow which was to represent the centre of the Region and the heart of the crow. These images document the quilting process and transformation from the printed composition to the completed insert.

As we have now begun the “hands on” section, I will add a new page to the blog to allow you to follow this stage of the project.

Printed composition being touched up

Quilting underway

Cup shape formed

Underside showing cotton quilt batting

Centre inserted into crow