by Heidi Bohaker
In this issue, and in memory of M’Chigeeng Elder and long-time GRASAC member and advisor Lewis Debassige, a gaawyekaajgan or quilled box made by Lewis’ mother Josette Debassige.
The box is in the collections of Royal Ontario Museum (accession number 2001.168.1111, 1 and 2) and was visited by a GRASAC team of Lewis Debassige along with Alan Corbiere, Trudy Nicks, Stacey Loyer, Anne De Stecher, Ruth Phillips, Cory Willmott, Darlene Johnston and Heidi Bohaker in December of 2008. The museum records indicate that the original collector bought the box in 1974, but Lewis felt she had made it before that, possibly sometime in the 1960s. According to Lewis, his mother put the turtle on this piece because “she just liked the little animals.” This box is beautifully made. The record description notes that it “is a round box with lid, top and sides covered with natural quills with turtle motif in centre. Bundled sweet grass sewn around bottom of lid. Lined with thin pieces of birchbark.” This record can be found in the GKS using this link with your login: https://gks.grasac.org/item/26715?v=simple_view.
Linked to this record is a photo of Josette holding three of her baskets, now in the collections of the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation. Four Anishinaabemowin words and phrases from Mary Ann Corbiere and Rand Valentine’s Dictionary of Anishinaabemowin are also linked to this quillbox: gaawyekaajgan (a quill box), gaawyike (do quillwork); gaawye (quill of a porcupine) and the verb gsingwaadzi (to do something commendable) with the example provided by Mary Ann Corbiere: Gesnaa gsingwaadzi wa kwezens gaawyeket. Is that girl ever doing a commendable thing doing quillwork. And indeed, Josette Debassige and her son both did very commendable work.
