Mi'kmaq Birch Bark Basket - Garden of the Gulf Museum
History of the Artefact:
This is a Mi'kmaq birch bark basket. Harvested birch bark and left over spruce roots from canoe building were used to make a few simple baskets, including some pieces of winter bark with crude etching.
The bark to make birch bark baskets was soaked in hot water and worked wet so as to minimize splitting. After 1600 Mi'kmaq women began making a variety of items solely for sale to Europeans. This included their famous porcupine quill work on bark and birch bark baskets, where hundreds of brightly-dyed quills were used to make a mosaic on top of birch bark.
The bark to make birch bark baskets was soaked in hot water and worked wet so as to minimize splitting. After 1600 Mi'kmaq women began making a variety of items solely for sale to Europeans. This included their famous porcupine quill work on bark and birch bark baskets, where hundreds of brightly-dyed quills were used to make a mosaic on top of birch bark.