Group hopes beaded map will help raise awareness and protect the Haldimand Tract

The directors of a project to bead a map of the Haldimand Tract hope it will unite artists, traditional knowledge keepers and scientists in the stewardship of the Grand River watershed in southern Ontario.

The Bead the Tract project is part of Protect the Tract, a Haudenosaunee-led environmental initiative out of Six Nations, Ont. 

Courtney Skye, a co-director of the project, said they hope to increase civic engagement in the protection of the Haldimand Tract.

The Haldimand Tract was granted to Six Nations of the Grand River in 1784 for allying with the British during the American Revolution. The land ran along roughly 10 kilometres on each side of the Grand River from its source in the region around Waterhen, Ont., to Lake Erie, covering roughly 384,451 hectares.

Six Nations's land has since dwindled to about 19,425 hectares.

"We're looking at different opportunities to do public education … raise awareness, talk about the ongoing unwanted development that's happening along the Grand River, and talk about Haudenosaunee land stewardship along the Grand River," said Skye.

She has recruited local historians Rick Montour and Susan Hill, who have both written extensively about the area, for their knowledge of the Grand River watershed and to lend their support to the project.

Skye wanted to honour her homelands in the most beautiful way possible, and for her that's Haudenosaunee raised beadwork.

"We started conceptualizing like what it would look like to create a map that would celebrate this traditional art form," Skye said.

The hide for this large piece of beadwork was traditionally tanned and is approximately two metres by 1.2 metres. 

Konwentenras Jamieson, who is Kanien'kehá:ka from Six Nations, said what she likes about the project is that it pulls from the different knowledge forms and different specialists. This was the first time she's tanned hide using the traditional brain-tanning method.

"As a scientist myself, I was actually fascinated with the hide tanning process and the chemical changes that occur that take you from what was once the skin of an animal into a functional hide, something that can be used for clothing or … art pieces such as this," said Jamieson.

For her, the Grand River watershed is the place she calls home. She said she has seen it change drastically since she was a child.

"I remember taking drives to various cities for groceries or for a trip … there was a lot of trees in between the cities or lot of farmland and now it's less time to get to the edge of the city because it's spreading," said Jamieson.

"I almost feel like it's walls closing in around the reserve because there's less and less green."

In April 2021 the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council announced a moratorium on development in the Haldimand Tract, saying that no development can proceed without the consent of the Haudenosaunee.

Despite this moratorium, development still continues along the Tract.

Bead the Tract is working in partnership with CAFKA, an artists collective in Kitchener and Waterloo region and they hope to present the piece on Indigenous Peoples Day in advance of a larger showing at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton.