News > Exhibitions

Whiskey Scrip

October 4, 2019

Edmonton-based Métis artist Heather Shillinglaw’s installation retells her family’s oral history of her great-great-grandfather John “Old Man Jack” Norris, who, according to family stories, contracted Indigenous and Métis women to transport whiskey on Red River Carts, disguised as homesteading supplies. Shillinglaw’s beaded and quilted hide map of the Carlton Trail traces these journeys from Fort Garry to Fort Edmonton, entangled with the issuance of Métis scrip and the impacts of this smuggled alcohol. Heather Shillinglaw is an Edmonton-based Métis artist…

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