Collections Database

This object is under review for NAGPRA-sensitivity.

Recent updates to NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) require consent from lineal descendants and/or affiliated Native American Tribes or Native Hawaiian Organizations before displaying or researching cultural items. We have removed the public image of this belonging until we can learn more about the wishes of affiliated Tribal officials or the descendants of those who made it.

If you want to connect with us and/or have information about this belonging, please contact artmuseum@mtholyoke.edu.

Label Text:
We are cradleboard makers. My husband, Babe, constructs, hand carves, and paints each board. As a textile artist, I bead the cradleboard wraps. Our community of Kahnawake (across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal) has a distinct way of designing cradleboards, and this style has remained consistent for over a century. While we have done our best to honor older designs in our cradleboards, we have also expanded into storytelling by using the board as a canvas to share our own stories.

Older cradleboards such as this one give us greater insight into the time period of the maker. While they appear mostly decorative, the meanings behind the designs hold great significance for Mohawk communities. The birds carrying the seeds, for example, represent the natural world and its continuance, while the flowers symbolize the earth’s fertility that grows throughout generations. Inspiration can come in many forms. Mostly we look to the natural world for our designs but we also draw upon historical or recent events in order to create something that will speak to its time.

– Carla Hemlock and Donald ‘Babe’ Hemlock

Tags:
indigenous people; Native American

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+SK+K.70

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.