Heart of Hearts

The Heart of Hearts is beaded on purple melton, a piece of the same remnants used in the Law With Heart Honour Shawl (Link), left over from the creation of a child-sized stole created for convocation 2020. Though neither blue nor red, it feels like spirit cloth to me. The melton was purchased from Bill Worb Furs on Treaty 1 territory, so it is fabric from home.

On the front of the piece are a monarch butterfly encompassing a heart in her wing, which Métis artist Leah Dorion shares is a “youthful spirit who symbolizes transformation from youth to adulthood. Butterfly is associated with the innocence and playfulness of childhood, and we are taught that even as adults, we need to nurture our inner child.”

Opposite the butterfly is a cardinal with a heart in her torso. Cardinals are ancestors who come visiting. One female cardinal in particular followed me around my neighbourhood all spring and summer last year as I completed the research and drafted my thesis. I think it was an ancestor in particular who had been on my mind. The day of my proposal defence she almost flew into my head to make sure I saw her when my son and I took a walk to lay down tobacco before the defence. Eight months later, on the day I ultimately received the examiner's feedback on this work, she returned to our neighbourhood and was first spotted by my son who greeted her by name.

The day before my doctoral defence, a matriarch in my family passed away. On our first walk outside following the defence, two cardinals landed in a tree beside us.

The youth and the ancestors speak to each other when the hide is tied.

On the back of the piece is a heart of hearts. There is, you see, a song by Newfoundland folk group Great Big Sea. I have always had a fondness for their music because it evokes similar feelings to the traditional fiddle tunes I favour as a soundscape for beading. Their song called Heart of Hearts includes the lyrics:

All together now until the end when this story’s over and a new one begins

In my heart of hearts there is a special place

For every man who shook my hand

Every girl that kissed my face

In my heart of hearts there hides no shame

In my heart of hearts I'd do it all again

The heart of hearts is beaded as a graded rainbow. My girls made this choice, and it suited my headspace - supporting gender diverse learners had been on my mind. It is beaded entirely in gifted beads - beads Learners, alum, community members, and others have gifted me during my time at the Faculty. They include vintage venetian olive-green trade beads, 24 karat plated fire polished beads, beads from Mi'kmaq territory through to British Columbia.

The giant hot pink metallic beads were a gift from my friend Larry, and every time I see them I smile at the thought of him going to Halfords in Edmonton, considering the wall of beads, and deciding that the beads that best represent me are hot pink and purple jewel tone metallic bead soup in a size 6. In all fairness, many of the greasy traditional colours in the heart of hearts came from Larry too, and insofar as the bead soup… he probably wasn’t wrong.

The home-tanned moose hide ties that smell the way I think cozy would smell if it was a scent and not a feeling were sourced through Catherine Orr of Cvltvre Bead. Catherine describes’s work her work as “culture through craft,” and her support of community and beadwork resurgence extends well beyond online spheres. Catherine building relationships in communities where she supports families who are maintaining and reclaiming traditional practices such as moosehide tanning, processes that were often interrupted through forced assimilative education regimes. This hide was gifted to me by a Learner who purchased them through a fastest fingers online sale of scrap hide.

The collar is backed in beadwork printed fabric. It was assembled by the Assistant Dean of our JD program and my friend, Rachel Leck. 

The heart is borderless as love is boundless and carries many quiet stories from the chaos of the spirals beaded in Cheyenne Pink beads purchased for me in Edmonton by an alumnus on a cross-country drive, to flames hidden in an orange heart and stripes evoking waves and wampum. Spirit beads abound in this piece, including gold-plated firepolished beads nestled in the vintage Venetians of the olive-green heart. I will happily tell you some of the stories they hold over tea and bannock sometime. Be sure to ask me why this piece is also a prayer shawl - it is one of those stories you do not write down (Maracle, 2017).