NAIG 2023 Host City Pins by Melissa Peter Paul, is one of many public artworks installed across the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Melissa Peter Paul, 2023
Quillwork designs used for enamel pins
Downie Wenjack Legacy Space
About the Artwork
We are excited to share with you the official Halifax Regional Municipality NAIG 2023 Host City Pins, featuring artwork by Mi’kmaw Quill Artist, Melissa Peter-Paul.
NAIG 2023 will bring together more than 5,000 athletes, coaches and team staff from 756+ Indigenous Nations celebrating, sharing and reconnecting through sport and culture with the help of 3,000 volunteers. Pin trading is a longstanding tradition at the NAIG games as it is with other international sporting events and provides an opportunity to connect cross culturally with other athletes and competitors. In this case, it offered us an opportunity to commission two new contemporary Indigenous artworks while also celebrating the hard work and perseverance of the organizers, athletes, volunteers, and communities that made these games possible.
The original quill works by Melissa Peter Paul (Abegweit First Nation, Epekwitk, PEI) featured in the Halifax Regional Municipality’s NAIG 2023 Host City Pins are now on display in the Downie Wenjack Legacy Space for all to see in person. We hope you will wear these pins with pride, give them away with care, and trade them with the spirit of creating stronger communities.
About the artist
Melissa is a Mi’kmaw woman from Abegweit First Nation, located on Epekwitk (PEI.) Growing up, Melissa was immersed in cultural teachings and was surrounded by a family of basket makers. She began her artistic expression at a young age, making regalia and beadwork, and is skilled in both traditional and contemporary styles. Melissa’s exposure to other Mi’kmaq artforms led her to quillwork, a traditional skill in which the ancestors of her maternal grandfather excelled. Melissa was accepted into an apprenticeship with Mi’kmaq Quill Art in 2015. Her training was grounded in the traditional insertion technique and utilized the study of both cultural teachings and formal material culture resources available through historic publications and museums. Quillwork is created by inserting porcupine quills, either dyed or kept natural, into birchbark. The pieces are then edged with quills, sweetgrass or spruce root. Over the course of her apprenticeship, Melissa learned techniques and protocols related to harvesting raw materials, as well as the complex geometry of traditional design work. Upon completion of her apprenticeship, Melissa has been integral in establishing a community of skilled quill workers. This community of quillers seeks to expand awareness of the artform and recently began working on collaborative projects. Melissa launched her professional career as a Mi’kmaq quill artist with her first solo exhibit at Receiver Coffee presented by This Town is Small in Charlottetown in 2019. She is heavily influenced by 20th century Mi’kmaw quillwork and she is supported in her harvesting efforts by her family. Melissa is proud to be passing the art on to her two sons and the broader community.