Land and art

On an early spring morning, just as the mayflowers had come into season, I had a lovely chat with Melissa Peter-Paul. She had already been up for hours, quilling and creating since the wee hours before daybreak. “My grandmother used to harvest mayflowers, create beautiful bouquets, and sell them to help care for her family.”  To honour her grandmother, Melissa and her family did the very same thing. “I gifted some of the bouquets to Elders in the community, too.” Carrying on the traditions of her ancestors, Melissa is a proud Mi’kmaw woman from Abegweit First Nation. “After a long winter of the earth resting, it feels so good to be back out on the land, connecting with nature, and harvesting.”

One of the lovely gifts of being on Epekwitk is that we are never too far from the water. “We were in the woods, and we could hear the waves. It was so beautiful to experience the land and the sea like that.” 

Melissa shared many beautiful stories about the land, like picking sweetgrass with her Gram. I learned about the ways she uses various natural materials in her artworks and how she weaves teachings into her daily life. As someone who grew up disliking the outdoors—the bugs, the mosquitoes, the heat—Melissa has built a beautiful relationship with the natural world in her adult life. “I used to be afraid to be outside, and now you couldn’t get me to stay inside. The spirit of my ancestors call me out on to the land.”

Now known far and wide for her beautiful quillwork, Melissa recalls her early days of learning. “I took a workshop from my cousin, Cheryl Simon, in 2014, and I was hooked! Something lit up in me at that time, and I knew this is what I was meant to do.” She went on to apprentice with Cheryl, traveling to other parts of Mi’kma’ki to learn from the land, to see petroglyphs, and to hone her craft. “I love all aspects of quilling but the part that really calls to me is the harvesting and being out on the land.”

By 2019, Melissa launched her fulltime quilling business. “Every day is something different and I love being able to do this for myself and my family.” Melissa’s great-grandmother was a quiller and then it skipped two generations. Melissa has picked it up and is carrying on the legacy of her ancestors through her quillwork. “It’s more than an art form; it is a connection to spirit.”

Melissa’s artwork is heavily influenced by the natural and spiritual world. “When I’m on the land, I am reminded that my family’s ancestors also walked in these woods, and I am following their path.”

Along with making her own creations, Melissa travels to deliver workshops, sharing her knowledge of quillwork with others. “I love being able to teach and share what I know, especially in my own community.”

Knowing now that she is meant to live a creative life, Melissa is grateful for her path. “I wasn’t well suited for education programs and thought I wasn’t good at things like math. But you should see how much math I need to use in my quillwork!” It turns out that she just needed the right methods to access her own inner brilliance. “I struggled in post-secondary school, and I didn’t know what I wanted to be or how I would provide for my family.” Land-based learning has helped Melissa access and embrace knowledge that she didn’t know was possible. “Now I am invited into math classes and art classes to teach the youth! Little me would be so proud to see that.”

As the summer season is on the horizon, Melissa is preparing for a huge outdoor arts festival in Toronto and for vending on the pow wow trail a little closer to home. “I’ll be at the Abegweit and Lennox Island pow wows this summer and people can also find my work at the Indigenous PEI store in Charlottetown.” Along with promoting and selling her creations, Melissa is also eagerly awaiting the time to harvest birch bark which happens a little later in June. “This harvest happens only once per year, so we need to get enough now to last us all year.” With her ancestors’ knowledge and her own experience in hand, she has come to know exactly how much she needs to carry her through until the next harvest season. Whether harvesting or quilling, “it feels like my hands are being guided by my ancestors.” She sometimes wonders if the colours will look ok or if the materials will hold up under pressure. “It somehow always works out.”