Quilt of Belonging Heads to Nain
By Amy Jo Patey
The Labradorian, January 16, 2006

Arctic initiative

Residents in Nain will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a unique work of art this week.

Invitation: The Quilt of Belonging begins its two-month Arctic tour at the Jens Haven Memorial School on Friday (January 20) before moving on to Northern Quebec and Nunavut.

Manager of Event Coordination Carol White said the Arctic tour was a joint effort between Invitation: The Quilt of Belonging and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and is the first tour of its kind.

"The Arctic tour has been in the works for two years," she said.

The quilt is a 120-foot long tapestry and has been dubbed Canada's largest and most comprehensive textile art project. It's comprised of 263 blocks representing all of Canada's First Peoples and every nation in the world.

After being launched last April, the quilt has been displayed at some of Canada's largest museums and has spent the past four months at The Rooms in St. John's.

Ms White said the Invitation Project was a non-profit group and all their air travel had been donated by three northern airlines - Air Labrador, Air Inuit and First Air.

"It simply wouldn't have been possible to take the quilt to the Arctic without that kind of sponsorship," she said.

Ms White said the quilt would leave The Rooms and travel to Goose Bay on Wednesday (January 18) where it would meet up with the first team of volunteers. From there, the quilt and volunteers will continue north to Nain where they will use Qamutiks pulled by snowmobile to get to Jens Haven Memorial School.

Moving the massive quilt is no easy task.

Ms White said before being moved the quilt had to be broken into eight separate panels and put in several unique boxes.

"It fits into four custom-designed boxes and the quilt gets rolled onto specially designed spools," she said.

"There's everything from butterfly wings to porcupine quills attached to the panels. There are silk pockets. There's all kinds of very special things on it and we have to be very careful transporting it."

Ms White said they had built in contingency days in case of bad weather or high humidity and had even allowed a full 24 hours at their destination before they unpack the quilt to prevent any damage.

"It's a lot of trial and error," she said.

"We just hope we've built in enough."

Volunteer Claudette Voet said she was "beyond excited" to go to Nain.

"We have worked for the past seven years to make up that tapestry," she said.

"I cannot tell you how much we are excited to take it to the Arctic. I'm unable to describe the feeling…to go to that part of the country and bring up the quilt to those people."

"It's quite exciting."

For more information on the quilt or the tour, visit the Invitation Project's website at www.invitationproject.ca.

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