May 17, 2011
Embroideries of the Past
The passion and vigour with which Anne de Stecher talks about her PhD research project are truly infectious.
De Stecher is an expert in art history with degrees in Western European and Aboriginal art history.
Her PhD project focuses on the Huron-Wendat community – an Aboriginal nation living in Wendake, outside Quebec City, for the past 300 years.
De Stecher says that their 19th century souvenir arts are based in ‘métissage’ – an intercultural exchange between Quebec convents and Aboriginal nations.
“The nuns came from the European embroidery tradition, but they drew on Indigenous materials and techniques using dyed moose hair and bark to create souvenirs,” she adds. “Later, the Huron-Wendat community adapted this tradition, and produced embroidered bark works of European domestic objects, such as visiting card cases and trays.”
In the pre-contact community men and women had egalitarian, complementary roles
De Stecher’s research asks to what extent did the missionaries, in return, influence the Huron-Wendat women, their gender roles and position in their society. She says that in the pre-contact community men and women had egalitarian, complementary roles.
De Stecher recently spent three months in Europe examining archives and Huron-Wendat art works in museums.
“My conclusion so far is that, in the 19th century, this souvenir art production was produced by men and women – women did the embroidery, men did the hunting for materials and trading,” she says. “Their collaboration wasn’t just successful; it was greatly successful. The recognition of the women’s role was high.
“Members of the Wendake community have been very generous in helping me with my research.
So whenever I visit collections of the Huron-Wendat works, I take photographs and ask the permission of the institutions to use them. I plan to make a disk of all photos and give it to the Huron-Wendat Museum. Since the souvenirs are so dispersed, I hope such a substantial visual collection will bring recognition to the extraordinary nature of this artistic tradition.”
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