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mokuk; birchbark container
mokuk; birchbark container
mokuk; birchbark container
Mokuk was made of birchbark filled with maple sugar, with a dyed dark brown splint on the edge held by black thread. The top and sides are decorated with colourful motifs and images made of porcupine quills. The image on one side shows a pig or a boar, and the other side shows a motif of horizontal lines with suspended triangles. The motif on the top of the container is an hourglass shape. The birchbark is folded and the sides of the container are stitched together, which may have been a Menomeni technique. Originally collected by Johann Georg Schwarz, it is currently housed at the Weltmuseum Wien, Austria.
Read More About This Relative
Birch bark, porcupine quills; splint on edge dyed dark brown with black thread to hold it; sides are stitched.
Folded birch bark; sides are stitched together rather than folded in a more normal way. This is possibly a Menomeni technique.
Horizontal lines with suspended triangles on one side; boar or pig on verso; on top hourglass shape.
Johann Georg Schwarz collected this item, possibly when he traveled to Detroit and through Upper Canada in the winter of 1820-1821.
Provenance
Johann Georg Schwarz traveled to Detroit and through Upper Canada in the winter of 1820-1821.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown Indigenous artist, mokuk. Currently in the Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, Austria, 11996. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip January 2016; GRASAC item id 59003.
In January of 2016, a small team of GRASAC researchers visited the collection to study and photograph it: Ruth Phillips, Lisa Truong, Naomi Recollet (Anishinaabe (Odawa/Ojibwe), Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory) and Wahsontiio Cross (Mohawk, Kahnawake). This GKS record was created in November of 2021 by GRASAC RA Aidan Mitchell-Boudreau.