The Sky Still Carries the Stories
Indigo, Waxed cotton, cotton, hand-stitched mirrors, tarpaulin dimensions: 400 X 464 inches
This outdoor public installation in the Eastern Townships was created to commemorate the presence of Black people in the region. More than 200 Black people lived in this region over 100 years ago. Faced with the lack of documentation on Black history, I adopted an approach—where visuals, sound and story give shape to a new history of Black life in the town of Freilighsburg.
Knowing that Black people in the townships had been guided north by the stars (via the Underground Railroad), I used the stars as a source of inspiration for this work. Materially, I seek to be attentive to the hidden meanings and histories that various fibres and mediums can convey.
Working with hand-dyed indigo, hand-waxed cotton, tarp, mirrors and thread, the work was conceptualized and constructed in my Montreal studio starting in October 2025. It features more than 2,000 hand-sewn mirrors representing our ancestors and the stars that guided them toward their freedom. Metaphorically, the mirrors also reflect back to us our history and our societies. Stars have always formed a type of sky map. These mirrors, like the stars, pulsate with a celestial presence— in the light seeming almost ancient. Reflecting on the history of quilts, these handmade textiles have deep associations with cartography and storytelling in Black culture. The work covers the barn like a massive quilt, as if to protect a sacred site. In this way, it highlights a past firmly rooted in the local context and bears witness to the longstanding Black presence in Frelighsburg and, more broadly, in Quebec. The manual labour required to create most of the work—which took over eight months to complete—pays homage to the Black lives that lived and endured difficult conditions throughout history at this site. The work was enhanced by a soundscape that draws on the oral tradition of “call and response” to commemorate the names found in the archives.
The work takes on multiple roles: by educating and highlighting the existing history of Black people in Quebec and utilizing traditional techniques such as quilting, folklore and storytelling to pay homage to the Blacks who once lived in the region. My hope with such work was to create awareness and deep dialogue around the shared existing histories that we have here in Canada. Further, to finally allow those who may have been forgotten to be remembered.
Accompanied by a sound piece by Markus Floats