Wednesday, September 27, 2023

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Traveling the Quilt Trail in SW Ontario





Avoiding the traffic on Hwy 401 and 402 between Toronto and Windsor you will not only find quieter roads and a bucolic landscape but also discover the art and history of rural SW Ontario, and the so-called "Barn Quilts".  These graphic-art pieces are prominently displayed on barns and housewalls.

What Are Barn Quilts?
The concept of barn quilts began with Donna Sue Groves, an American, and her wish to honor her mother, Maxine, and her Appalachian heritage by having a painted quilt hung on her barn in Adams County, Ohio.  As is often the case, good ideas fall by the wayside when work and other obligations intervene... but are picked up somewhere else.



There are myths that quilts were used to communicate safe houses and other information about the Underground Railroad, which was a network through the United States and into Canada of "conductors", meeting places, and safe houses for the passage of African Americans out of slavery.  More with reality are the barn quilts that commemorate the "War of 1812" and the "Native Women Trail of Tears". 




Thirteen quilters representing the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Lenape Nations of the southwest region of Ontario quilted beautiful images reflecting traditional knowledge and historical events from the perspective of Anishinaabe Kwewag  (in Ojibwe, meaning women).  Thirty-one quilt blocks were designed and sewn using traditional quilt block design techniques and appliqué to tell the stories of First Nation women and their children as they might have experienced life during the beginning of the 19th century.




For example, the quilt block entitled ‘Cedar Tree’ made by Leona Hendrick, Chippewas of the Thames citizen depicts one of the four sacred medicines of the Anishinaabe.  Cedar protected families from disease and resembles the traditional indigenous knowledge grandmothers handed down to their daughters to protect their families.  The forest was their shelter and protector and women knew the gifts of medicine the forest afforded them during this time of great need. 





During the war, the women tended to the injured and recovered the dead.  Villages were being plummeted and burned and families were in jeopardy of overexposure to the elements.  The women had to work quickly in times of great strife to provide care and comfort to those in need.  The cedar tree represents this story on the Native Women’s Trail of Tears Barn Quilt Trail starting on Longwoods Rd. near Muncey, Ontario (25 minutes southwest of London).
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The Chippewa Barn Quilt Project

In conjunction with the Longwoods Barn Quilt Trail project has been carried out in a spirit of reflection, renewal, and relationship building between many rural communities and the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation. 
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Native Women’s Trail of Tears Quilt 

They named the quilt the Native Women’s Trail of Tears Quilt because of the many tears that must have been shed by First Nation families during this time.  It will travel along with the Longwoods Honouring Women of 1812 Quilt created by quilters from neighboring counties which tells the stories from a settler woman’s point of view.
(Located SW of London, ON, on HWY 9 - Jubilee Rd - Southerland Rd - 11)
Caught in conflict, pushed from homelands, prevailing among a growing immigrant population, attacking in defense of territories, negotiating with the Crown for peace and friendship, resulting in “lands set aside as reserves” - a way of life dramatically changed… This is the backdrop of the stories behind the Native Women’s Trail of Tears Quilt.
Caught in conflict, pushed from homelands, prevailing among a growing immigrant population, attacking in defense of territories, negotiating with the Crown for peace and friendship, resulting in “lands set aside as reserves” - a way of life dramatically changed… This is the backdrop of the stories behind the Native Women’s Trail of Tears Quilt

                                                                                    




The partnership serves to address the need for all Canadians to better understand the contributions of Indigenous peoples to the story, present, and future, of this country.



Longwood Barn Quilt Trail on HWY 2

The Longwoods  Barn Quilt Trail (between SW London, ON, and Chatham) is a combined map of 30 barn quilts from Wardsville as well as 31 Barn Quilts from the Native Women's Trail of Tears Barn Quilt Trail.  Plus thirty barn quilts from Longwood Road.  And don't forget the South Caradoc spur line.  Have fun and drive carefully.
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