MSU Museum quillwork exhibition centers Indigenous art

On Sept. 30, the “Quillwork: Demonstration and Talk,” a complement to the MSU Museum’s exhibition, “Gaawii Eta-Go Aawizinoo Gaawiye Mkakoons/It’s Not Just a Quill Box,” drew a notably large crowd to the MSU Museum. In response to the number of attendees, event coordinators quickly adjusted the planned program, allowing guest speaker Monica Raphael to present to the audience before meeting visitors in the exhibition. Raphael described herself as a fifth-generation quillwork artist and a curator of Great Lakes Native art and cultures at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.

Quillwork is a practice in which artists gather and prepare materials such as birch bark, sweetgrass and porcupine quills, then sort, clean and dye the quills before creating designs. Raphael described drawing a pattern on layered bark, making small holes and inserting the quills to form lines and patterns. She stressed that the work depends on learned knowledge and respectful harvesting, not just the stitching itself.

The exhibition and demonstration were meaningful for Raphael because it brought images of her relatives and community into view alongside the quillwork. Pointing to a photograph of Susan Miller, whom she identified as her great-grandmother’s best friend, and images of aunties and grandmothers from the area, Raphael reflected: “It’s really awesome to be able to see them in an exhibition.”

The exhibition, which opened Sept. 1, showcases nearly 90 artworks drawn from both public and private collections, including the MSU Museum’s holdings and archives.

Visitors encounter quillwork alongside images of artists and community members and learn about the materials, teachings, stories, and relationships behind the art, including to natural resources and to language. The exhibition includes a video featuring a poem by artist Yvonne Walker Keshick, read in Anishinaabemowin by Isadore Toulouse and accompanied by imagery from Indigenous photographer Minnie Wabanimkee.

Raphael emphasized why Indigenous leadership matters. “I am just so proud of the exhibition because it puts our members first.”

The exhibition was co-managed by Minnie Wabanimkee, Anishinaabe Tribal elder and photographer, and Marsha MacDowell, curator of folk arts at the MSU Museum and director of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program at MSU Outreach and Engagement. The show was developed through close collaboration with museum partners, Native artists, elders, language specialists and community members. A Native advisory committee also helped ensure the cultural integrity and authenticity of the exhibition.

“It wasn’t one person’s vision; it was many people’s visions,” MacDowell said, mentioning primary collaborators including Kurt Dewhurst, Lynne Swanson, and Heather Howard (all of MSU) and Yvonne Walker Keshick, Minnie Wabanimkee, William Johnson, Isadore Toulouse and designer Eva Oldman.

The fully bilingual exhibition is presented in Anishinaabemowin and English, with Indigenous perspectives central to how the work is shared. Native voices for contemporary Anishinaabe artists located in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Manitoulin Island, Canada, inform the cultural continuity of the exhibition. The objects are seen not only as works of art, but as a celebration of cultural artifacts, skills, and creativity.

“I wanted this story that was being told about the quillwork to be done well and done through primarily the lens of Indigenous peoples,” MacDowell said.

According to MacDowell, that commitment informed how the exhibition was developed. Indigenous artists and elders helped select the works, while artists’ words, Wabanimkee’s photographs and Oldman’s exhibit design helped shape how visitors encounter them.

The exhibition’s bilingual presentation also reflects the project’s effort to center Indigenous voices and language. Raphael’s remarks connected language and representation to cultural continuity and to telling Indigenous stories from Indigenous perspectives.

The exhibition will be on display at the MSU Museum through January 30, 2027, with several additional programs planned, including a Hands-on Quillwork Workshop on Oct. 18 and a Native American Heritage Poetry Reading on Nov. 4.

The community connections of this project go beyond the actual exhibition. In partnership with the MSU Native American Institute, several groups of Indigenous elders will also be visiting the exhibition and the MSU Museum Cultural Collections Center to see the university’s Anishinaabe collections. Future outputs include a digital version of the exhibition and a digital repository of quill art from multiple public and private collections.

The lead institutional organizers of this exhibition were the Michigan Traditional Arts Program, Michigan State University Museum, and Ziibiwing Center for Anishinabe Culture & Lifeways. Major support for the multi-year, multi-faceted project was provided by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.