Weaving Connections

Isabel Rorick wasn’t sure what to expect when she travelled from her home in British Columbia to Montreal to participate in a project bringing together Indigenous weavers from the Northwest Coast and staff from two museums.

“I’m very grateful for what I experienced here,” says Rorick, a Haida artist born in Old Masset, Haida Gwaii, B.C., after engaging with conservators from Montreal’s McCord Stewart Museum and the Musée du quai Branly — Jacques Chirac in Paris last fall. “I was very impressed by how the museum’s conservators treated all these weaving pieces, the amount of time it took and the care taken with each object.

“My favourite part was meeting my great-grandmother’s hat and basket and spending time with [them]. That meant a lot to me.”

Meghann O’Brien, a Haida and Kwakwaka’wakw artist, appreciated the opportunity to spend time with traditional Chilkat robes and a cedar-bark cape. The cape was “something that I’ve seen a few times, but I’ve never really taken the time to sit, especially with a group of people, to really examine it,” says O’Brien.

Rorick and O’Brien were part of a week-long project to study the collections at each of the two museums, which hold weavings made by Haida, Tlinglit, and Kwakwaka’wakw artisans. Museum staff said learning from the Indigenous weavers gave them a deeper understanding of the meaning and nature of the woven belongings. The experience will have long-lasting impacts and will inform future projects and influence research approaches to Indigenous material culture.

The project was initiated by Canada’s History Society through Projet Portage — a five-year program supported by the Molson Foundation and meant to connect history communities in French and English Canada. The exchange was originally scheduled for 2020, but was delayed due to the pandemic.