Birch bark art

When I was a kid, my parents bought me this foot-long birch bark canoe from a vendor at Klondike Days. I don't have any recollection of the moment that souvenir came into my life but I spent many a Saturday afternoon making fair use of it as a toy vessel for some action figures, offering me a way of vicariously exploring the jungles and oceans of my imagination while I sat there in my sandbox.

The canoe, sadly, didn't survive my enthusiastic playtime but the indigenous artform of birch bark basket making sure has. A new exhibit gives viewers some historical insight into the techniques, the practicality and the beauty of these traditional baskets and decorative objects.

Wus'kwiy/Waskway: From Berry Baskets to Souvenirs opened just last week at the Musée Héritage Museum. No matter how you pronounce it, the exhibit is a delight in the intricacies of a tradition that has struggled to survive in various forms.

"There are actually quite a few different words for birch bark in Cree and in a couple of the dialects," said Shari Strachan, director of the museum, suggesting that words can vary depending on what is being created from the bark or what colour or season the bark was harvested.

"There's some very fancy designs and then there's the element of souvenirs as well. All the different kinds of embossing they would do to appeal to tourists."

Some of that embossing runs a bit to the tacky side. There's one piece that the museum had to put a censor bar across as it features an otherwise topless woman doing a hula dance. I don't think that anyone would consider that a strong sample of Wus'kwiy.

The exhibit features more than 80 pieces, from birch bark baskets to cowboy hats to bassinets to sculptures to bitings.

It stemmed out of another of the museum's recent exhibits that opened in June 2013. Transforming Traditions was a unique look at contemporary forms of traditional aboriginal crafts, using some fairly traditional materials such as deer hide, feathers and fish scales right alongside some decidedly non-traditional materials such as duct tape, plastic cord and snuff tins.

That exhibit was a follow-up in itself to another exhibit from 2010 called Patterns in Glass: Métis Design in Beads. The entire series has been a real education into arts and crafts by aboriginal artists and artisans.

You could say that these birch bark creations have transformed traditions too. The oldest basket on display originated in the mid-1800s. Other very plain works demonstrate how the prime objective was always with a function in mind. These baskets were used to collect berries or as other kinds of containers.

They might seem obscure to modern audiences but Strachan said that there's a lot of awareness already. What people are generally not aware of is how detailed they can be.

"What I'm hearing mostly as people are looking around the baskets that there's so many different kinds of designs and some are so elaborate. They didn't realize you could do this with bark."

There's also been some interest sparked about how durable they are too.

"They didn't realize that the bark lasted this long. There's a basket in there from 1866 and another from 1910," she continued. "Someone came up to me and said, 'You mean 1966, right? That's an error.' She couldn't believe it. That's amazing!"

Part of that preservation is due to the diligence of collectors who keep the artifacts in acid-free boxes. But that's only within the last few decades that they've been doing this. Otherwise, the baskets were in full use.

"It hasn't been in that situation since 1866. They were intended to be used. That was the reason they were created. Aside from cracking, use probably was a good thing."

Art you can cut your teeth on

"Bark biting is an ephemeral and subtle art involving four of the five senses in the creation of a final product that is as delicate and as fleeting as a butterfly wing." – from the book WIGWAS: Bark Biting by Angelique Merasty of the Western Woods Cree in Saskatchewan.

Birch bark bitings, according to the website www.artsask.ca, is one of the oldest aboriginal art forms. It starts in much the same way many people are familiar with making paper snowflakes: by folding and folding again the bark itself.

That's the easy part. The biting doesn't necessarily require strong teeth but does take patience in order to place your tooth in the right positions.

For several reasons, people consider it to be a dying art. Holly Rae Yuzicapi (of the Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation in Saskatchewan) said that her family has practiced art in order to keep its culture and history alive. She explained that biting wasn't a part of her childhood but she came to learn it as she explored different art forms as an adult.

"It was only when I came to northern Alberta. Where I come from, we don't really have any wus'kwiy. It's all fields and short bush. Trees… I was just fascinated by them when I came out here, what they were used for."

Biting might seem like a practice that you would need highly specialized training and years of work to get it just right but Yuzicapi said that she was a natural at it.

"You have to find the spot on your teeth that you will hit every time. It took a lot of experimenting to find out which of my teeth will bite consistently."

For others, it might be something that's more elusive.

"I can't even completely grasp how you do it!" Strachan. "I get the folding and I get the symmetry there but how do you get the symmetry on the different folds? How do you know where your tooth is?"

Yuzicapi has been teaching it to kids at schools to an overwhelmingly positive response. The end result of masters such as Merasty – some of which are on display at the Musée – are totally fascinating too.

Workshops with special instructor Holly Rae Yuzicapi

People can try their hands – and mouths – at Birch Bark Biting with a special class on Saturday, Feb. 14 from 1 to 4 p.m. Yuzicapi will instruct the participants in the methods of this traditional art using transfer paper. A suggested minimum donation is $2 to $3.

Two weeks later, she will be offering a session in Birch Bark Basket Making. People can work on traditional baskets with contemporary materials including felt and plastic strapping.

The workshop takes place on Saturday, Feb. 28 from 1:30 to 4 p.m., with a guided program with Yuzicapi from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Please note this program is best suited for ages 12+ and the cost is $25 per person, which includes all supplies.