I Am A Maker of Masks

It took seeing 'Quella Pensosa', (the pensive one), on a black background for me to admit some things I didn't want to allow myself to think about.

1. The first group of my ancestors arrived in this part of the world, which the people who lived here called Turtle Island, in 1700 and the rest of them arrived in 1900. I have been many generations separated from any artistic influence of the masks and magic of the Celtic tribes from whom I am descended.

2. A major influence then was the masks of the Haudenosaunee people whose ancestral land I was born and live on. I thank them for sharing their land and understand that I was only able to see those living and sacred masks as a child because they had been stolen from the people who made them by the dominant culture of which I was a part.

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I acknowledge this and hope that my own humble work is not seen as appropriation but as an honouring of the strength and spirituality of the Haunosaunee people.

I have been called to be a mask maker.