Mi'kmaq cloak and moccasins

The Mi’kmaq are Woodlands peoples of north America who occupy the region of southeast Canada and southwestern Newfoundland. First contact with Europeans is thought to have been in 1534 with the arrival of French explorer Jacques Cartier. The Mi’kmaq is one of the confederacies of five tribes that made up the Wabanaki, all of whom shared designs in their textiles, the most common being the double curve motif. The defining feature in Mi’kmaq textiles is the central section of the motif shaped like a ‘T’ or pedestal. It has been argued that the motifs were decorative only, although other readings suggest that the meanings have merely been lost and that the symbols provided a form of power, protection or at, times, identification. Ribbon appliqué is also common in Mi’kmaq textiles, the ribbon typically cut into thin strips with various triangles and semicircles cut into them, then appliquéd onto the wool. The resulting forms possibly represent the mountains or ocean waves typical of the landscape of Novia Scotia.

The design on the coat here reflects European influences, specifically the military great coats given to the Mi’kmaq by the British government. Buttons and buttonholes were not sewn into the material; instead the cloak would have been held shut with a belt, tied at the waist. All of the dyes used in the cloak are natural and were sourced locally, with the traditional colours being red, white, black and yellow. The red dye used prominently in the cloak may have had particular symbolic importance, representing blood and life. Materials for cloaks such as this were sourced from around the world through the Mi’kmaq trade with Europeans: woollen cloth from England, beads from Italy, and silk ribbon from China. This particular cloak has many features common to Mi’kmaq textiles, such as the double curve motif. It is very likely that the cloak was manufactured in Novia Scotia, from where it was most probably collected in the 1840s by Samuel Douglas Smith Huyghue, then a resident of New Brunswick. Huyghue migrated to Australia from Canada in 1852 and donated the cloak and moccasins to Melbourne’s fledgling Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery in 1879.