Title: Lyric

Artist: Christine Toulouse

Tribal Affiliation: Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation

Year Completed: 2022

Medium: Quillwork, Porcupine quills on birch bark, Framed

Dimensions (HxWxD): quilled birch bark is 4"x4"; walnut coloured frame is 12"x12"

Description/Inspiration:

Porcupine quills are hand harvested, sorted, cleaned and dyed (watermelon pink, aqua green and soft green). Birchbark is sourced from Sagahmok Anishnawbek region. Frame is walnut coloured. Eyes shut, gliding along the beat's breeze. Free to move, stretch toward melody. Lyric was created as a part of collection that honours movement and growth, as we follow the songs whispered to us on the wind, or beating in our hearts.

Artist Bio/Statement:

Christine Toulouse is an Anishinaabe artist from Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation whose current primary focus is in the traditional realm of quillwork, a form of textile embellishment using dyed or natural-coloured quills from porcupines to weave into birch bark. Christine works to connect land and season to practice. She absorbs and passes down Indigenous memory and knowledge, tethers herself to ancestors and traditions, and invites past into present allowing for memory to become reality in her work.

Her practice involves learning cultural and traditional arts and practices from First Nations Elders and promoting the significance of quillwork as a process to learn, heal, grow, and share.

Christine's technique has been passed down from quill artists preceding her. She was taught the traditional craft of quillwork from her grandmother, Ida Assinewe (Toulouse) who is a quill box artist herself.

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