Quilting on the Wheel of Life
This article will give you some insight into the rich quilting heritage within the aboriginal community. My name is Rev. Kathryn Gorman-Lovelady. In my Métis community, I am known as "Kateri Sapphire Moon". I am a quilt artisan, elder, teacher and alternative healer. With my husband Brian (who is also Métis), we run a community clinic specializing in aboriginal healing techniques, and teach the cultural, textile and spiritual traditions of the Métis Nation. We live in Southern Ontario, with 5 cats, 4 dogs, 11 llamas, one horse, and one miniature donkey. As professional artisans, we have studio space in our home for the creation of quilts, jewellery and diverse things like leather work, bead craft and drum making. Professionally, we have both worked extensively in social services, prior to opening our clinic. We are graduates of the University of Guelph - Brian with a degree in sociology, and I with a degree in psychology. I studied the "midewiwin" or sacred shamanic medicine traditions for 9 years. After university, I became a minister (now retired) and Therapeutic Touch practitioner. I taught quilting and 16 other textile related programs in the local community college for 8 years, but we prefer to teach from our space.
Teaching quilting and textile techniques within the Métis community is wonderfully rewarding. The lessons have results which go beyond technique - I am reacquainting people with their heritage. Aboriginal quilters are most readily known for beautiful designs incorporating Bethlehem or Texas Stars, but our traditions include other quilted objects. In future columns I will write about The Medicine Blanket", quilted clothing, embellishment and many other things. Some insight into the background of Métis life and history will help to show how we get the subject matter for our designs.
Our Spiritual Identity
As an elder, minister and educator, I am often asked to help individuals find that spark of belonging, that spiritual "thing" which resonates within the soul, a marker that says "I am Métis". We awaken to that connection, and begin to own it, when we understand something of the history of these people. On the surface, that statement seems obvious, but understanding Métis identity is a complex subject. Originally, it was employees of companies like Hudson’s Bay, searching for fur in the heartlands, which introduced French, Scot, Irish, Scandinavian, western and eastern European peoples to Canada. These cultures, and others, intermarried with Cree, Ojibwa, Iroquois, Ottawa, Mohawk, Algonquin and many other tribal groups, producing a wide range of rich heritages to draw on. Our non-aboriginal ancestries were varied as much as the Indian and Innu cultures. This has produced a colourful tapestry of variables which have evolved into who we are today.
So what is the commonality? We are "aboriginal plus." In 1982 Métis were identified by the Constitution Act as being one of three distinct aboriginal races in Canada, along with Indian and Inuit people. Although there are many different nations that comprise our aboriginal component, we are fortunate to understand today that many First Nations traditions are the same, although the tribal groups differ. This is the component I refer to as cosmology, a collective consciousness that supersedes specific tribal orientation. It is the circle, The Wheel of Life.
