Micmac Quillwork: Micmac Indian Techniques of Porcupine Quill Decoration: 1600-1950

Nora T. Corley is a librarian in Ottawa.

Decorating with porcupine quills was a beautiful art form perfected by the Micmac Indians, who lived originally in the Maritime Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula, spreading later into Newfoundland and New England. In pre-European days there were four methods of working with porcupine quills: weaving, plaiting, wrapping, and stitching, all developed for use on leather. Techniques for these methods have been completely lost today, and only a few examples have survived. This splendid book deals with bark-insertion, the fifth technique of quillwork. The book begins with a history of Micmac quillwork, quoting comments of early explorers and missionaries who considered it to be “fantastic ornamentation” and the work “worthy of admiration.” The second part of the book deals with the raw materials used — the porcupine quills, natural dyes, birchbark, spruce wood, and sweetgrass — how the objects were constructed and decorated, and ornamentation techniques. The last section deals with design motifs. The two appendices discuss the known quillwork artists, all of them women, and the conservation of quillwork on bark. There is a bibliography of over 100 printed sources, and several manuscript sources and personal communications. The text is most interesting and well documented, being based on the major collections in Canada and abroad, the Nova Scotia Museum having the largest collection. The descriptions of the quillwork and the techniques are clear and concise, and the book is generously illustrated with 504 black-and-white photographs and 22 coloured plates showing the handsomest examples of this exacting craft, many of them from the Nova Scotia Museum collection. Quillwork was used originally to decorate clothing and as jewellery, but later was used to decorate boxes and nests of boxes; and much later it was made into chains, cradles, table tops, log baskets, and placemats as trade items and souvenirs. The photographs amply illustrate the various designs used. The illustrations are not without humour. Number 504, entitled “The End” shows a porcupine, quills intact, waddling off into a snowy field. This superb book is a must for all Indian art collections and craft collections. It will be a major reference work in libraries with Canadian Native peoples collections, because it deals with a subject that has not been written about to any extent, and because of the numerous illustrations.