The Quill Sisters
“The Quill Sisters”, a collaboration of Mi’kmaq women working together.
For the past six years, a group of skilled Mi’kmaq women from Epekwitk have worked together to revitalize the traditional artform of porcupine quill work. Early collaborative efforts centered on design feedback, joint harvesting, business strategies and a lot of laughter! Each individual recognizes that by working together, they can build a community network centred on Mi’kmaq values that makes ancient cultural practices relevant in the modern world. They may have unique styles, but together they showcase traditional practices that are timeless. They are proud to share with you their work as quill sisters.
Kay Sark
Kayla Sark is a Mi’kmaq woman from Lennox Island, Epekwit. Kay was accepted as an
apprentice to Mi’kmaq Quill Art in 2016 and learned the traditional harvesting practices and
quilling techniques. She went on to share the art form with her children and then the broader
community through workshops which she has been instructing for five years. She and her
partner share in harvesting porcupine quills, sweet grass and birch bark, making her quill art a
launching point for a shared cultural experience for her family. Once she learned the basic
technique, Kay quickly developed a unique style drawing upon personal inspiration rather than
being influenced by more traditional designs.
Kay enjoys the creative process and starts with inspired by different colour combinations. She
begins each piece by quilling a foundational star, then incorporates the colour combinations to
bring balance to the work and provide the unique detail. Kay gravitates to the eight-pointed
star and feels a connection to that particular design as it has become such a symbolic
representation of the Mi’kmaq nation.
kaylasark1603@hotmail.com
Cheryl Simon
Mi'kmaq Quill Art by Cheryl Simon
Cheryl Simon is a Mi’kmaq woman from Epekwitk (PEI), currently residing in Halifax, who
works with porcupine quills, birchbark, spruce root and sweetgrass. She fell in love with
Mi’kmaq quillwork as a little girl studying her mother’s collection of quill boxes. She started
learning and studying the insertion technique and design upon moving back to Mi’kma’ki in
2007, and launched her business, Mi’kmaq Quill Art in 2011. Cheryl is committed to
community education of the artform and has been teaching quillwork workshops for over ten
years. She took on her first apprentice in 2015 and opened a short-term studio in Epekwitk
in 2016 to begin a program of instruction for three more apprentices.
While Cheryl focuses on traditional quillwork and construction, she also developed a
process for accurately depicting the petroglyphs (rock carvings) after visiting the petroglyph
sites in Nova Scotia. Over the past two years, she decided to incorporate both traditional
designs and the petroglyph technique into the same quillwork pieces. This blending of styles
lets her showcase the importance quill size can make in enhancing the detail of the design.
She was recently inspired by contemporary Mi’kmaq art to move beyond the quill box lids
which influenced her early work to split the design into separate pieces, which adds a
vibrancy to the designs.
Cheryl has taught her children to harvest and quill and is excited to begin the process of
teaching them the intricacies of designing in the traditional style. She feels that quillwork
requires strong connections and is proud that the community of quillers is expanding to
include the younger generations.
cherylannsimon@gmail.com
Melissa Peter-Paul
Melissa Peter-Paul Mi'kmaw 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.