Seed beads on wool double cloth, 2019.

 

Using the foundation of a Mackinaw jacket as memory holder, as storyteller, and as archive, Stories of the Moon honours intergenerational and land-based knowledges that have been passed down to me through my family. Beaded phrases from a journal entry written by my late grandmother Mary Woods in 1979 surround the outside sleeves and inside linings of the jacket. The journal entry recounts the story of when my grandmother travelled to the Moon River (near Mactier, Ontario, Canada) to visit the settlement where my great-grandfather, Albert Woods, was born. In November 2019, I retraced my grandmother’s words by travelling to the Moon River with my father and spending time on the land. The jacket is a material embodiment of this experience. 

 

This jacket also serves as a material dedication to the group of Halfbreed women who invented the Mackinaw jacket on St. Joseph's Island in 1811.​ I am grateful to Dylan Miner and the conversations we shared, informing the historical context of this work.​