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Articles
The Quilt's Journey to the Arctic: The Blessing and the Blessed In the early dawn of January 18th, a van carrying four sleepy but excited passengers crept slowly through the freezing rain, en route from the tiny Ontario village of Williamstown to the Montreal airport. Toting luggage of every description the first four travelers of the 16-member team, none of whom had ever been to the Far North, were embarking on the long anticipated Arctic Tour of Invitation: the Quilt of Belonging. For two years the Invitation Project and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) had planned this 8-week landmark art tour, which would cross the Arctic from east to west. Months of preparation included flight scheduling for cargo and passengers with Air Labrador, First Air and Air Inuit, planning venues, ground transportation, accommodations, openings, fundraising, orientation and tracking hundreds of other details. Piles of "Arctic clothes" were borrowed…kamiks, parkas, socks, mitts, fur hats. Special lighting was designed and packed along with cameras, brochures in 4 languages including Inuktitut syllabics and Roman Orthography, stacks of books and gifts for our hosts. All was finally ready! With both anticipation and trepidation the first group was on its way to the Far North to share the Quilt of Belonging. Invitation: the Quilt of Belonging took six and a half years to make. It includes 263 blocks, one for each nation of the world as each is represented by at least one person living in Canada and one for each of our nation's main Aboriginal Groupings - Inuit, First Nations and Métis. Each cultural history and block maker's story was collected to be included in the beautifully illustrated companion book and on the website. Six beautiful Inuit blocks are included on the first row of this 120-foot long, 10 foot high textile artwork designed to portray the Canadian family that we want to be. The inaugural exhibition of Invitation: the Quilt of Belonging opened April 1st, 2005 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa/Hull. At the opening gala Jose Kusugak eloquently told the hundreds of attendees that "Inuit are First Canadians and Canadians First … There's no need to tug on the corners of this quilt, there is room for everyone…This quilt literally knits the country together…It touches people on many levels and addresses our essential humanity." No one could have imagined at that time how prophetic his words were to be and how lives would be touched. In Nain we experienced a form of peace and patience that can only come in a remote community totally dependent on the weather for planes and boats to connect them to the rest of the world. What a gift to let go of all the day-to-day noise and rush in our lives as we learned to adapt to the changes that a 150 cm (5 foot) snowfall can bring. While exhibiting in Kuujjuaq we absorbed a lifestyle somewhere between the quiet pace of a very traditional people and the changing rhythms of a transient workforce. As we walked everywhere in the brisk fresh air, looking at vistas of pristine snow and brilliant blue skies, we had a sense of beauty unbound and reaped nights of heavenly deep sleep. The team members visiting Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet experienced a wonderful exchange of artistic inspiration, meeting Inuit artists in their workshops and enjoying their unique techniques and creations. In return there was a deep intuitive appreciation of the Quilt as many felt it inspired them with new directions in their art and work as communities. Drummers and dancers performing within the gentle curve of the Quilt delighted all on opening night at The Midnight Sun Recreation Centre in Inuvik. Above all, the community's willingness to share all they had left a lasting imprint. At the Legislative Building in Yellowknife, as elsewhere, the warm welcome touched our hearts as volunteers pitched in to help install the Project in record time. Many had worked hard to bring the Quilt and its message of friendship to the Arctic, but what was received in return can never be measured or repaid. Throughout the journey wonderful memories were made as teachers herded beautiful, wide-eyed school children in and out, as mothers toting their precious sleeping infants in their amoutiqs spent time studying the blocks, as proud block makers arrived to finally see their block form part of the quilt. Each community gifted us with precious insights, knowledge and respect as we shared and compared our life stories. So often, though we live differently from one another, we also share much in common. Everywhere expressions of awe and appreciation for bringing the Quilt echoed in our ears. All the while the nature of this beautiful, rugged land that makes up more than 40% of Canada pulled the whole experience together with a beauty and grace all its own.
A unique experience best summarizes how lives were forever changed on this tour. On the last day of the exhibition in Kuujjuaq, a Sunday, the local congregation felt something happen during prayer that morning and believed it was because of the gift of the Quilt. Spontaneously, Father Abraham felt that the Quilt needed to be blessed. Within minutes, congregation and Invitation volunteers were standing hand in hand in a circle, gently enclosed within the surrounding Quilt. All listened to the blessing of the Quilt, praying in a language that we could not understand. In love and in faith, all points had converged to bring about this moment in time. The Quilt, which was received as a blessing in this community, was in return blessed. And then, to their surprise and amidst tears of joy, one by one each Invitation team member with head bowed was also anointed and commissioned to carry this good with them and the quilt wherever it went. The blessing had become the blessed! We had taken ourselves, our cloth and our message that each person contributes a valuable thread to the Canadian tapestry. We received friendship, knowledge, peace, hope and priceless memories to share for a lifetime.
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