Iakonikonriiosta' quilt featured in 2020 North Country Art, Land, and Environment Summit

By Mahlon Smoke

As part of the North Country Art, Land, and Environment Summit, Iakonikonriiosta was commissioned to create a piece with the theme of water. Since the water was a huge element of the Sky Woman story, Iakonikonriiosta made a quilt depicting the very moment Sky Woman placed the soil onto the turtle's back to create the Earth. The piece was also purchased by St. Lawrence University and put on display for the Tsi Kiontahsawen / In the Beginning, a Virtual Exhibition, that is going on from November 24th – December 30th as part of their virtual show. The quilt can now be viewed on the St. Lawrence University website as well as on display at The Richard F. Brush Art Gallery and on the North Country Art, Land, and Environment website.

Along with Iakonikonriiosta and her work, works by local artists Katsitsionni Fox, Natasha Santiago and Sheila Ransom, all of whom were given the same prompt, water, are featured. Iakonikonriiosta talks about her experience and how she got involved with the group, "The people who were filming that [the North Country Art, Land, and Environment Summit] were looking for artists who did work that had to do with the water. I helped them get in touch with a couple of people and we got talking. And so, I got asked to make a quilt for them." Iakonikonriiosta has been quilting for many years and always provides beautiful works of tactile art for the Akwesasne Freedom School Quilt Auction and in other venues. Blake Lavia and Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo were the filmmakers working on a film about the people along the watershed of the St. Lawrence river. Another aspect of the duo's work was to show that art is an expression of the importance of the environment, the dangers of climate change, and showcasing connection the water has to many Indigenous groups.

When Lavia and Aguilar-Izzo talked to Iakonikonriiosta about the project, she told them about the creation story of Sky Woman.

"I could see that moment when she does that and I told them I could make a quilt like that."

Iakonikonriiosta presented the idea and she prepared to make it a reality.

Within the artwork itself, Iakonikonriiosta worked to make the piece feel and look 3D, especially with waves of the water and the weaves on the back of the turtle. The water waves were strips of fabric folded and folded back on itself, a technique she learned to create the illusion of waves. For the turtle, she used a cording for its shell to give it "stability and strength" according to Iakonikonriiosta. During the making of this quilt, she mentioned that she tried to see it through the eyes of the birds and water animals that witnessed this event.

Iakonikonriiosta said, "I was so enthralled by that, and I was thinking that there were older spirits who must have seen that and would've seen it."

Part of the piece is a wampum design known as 'The One Dish One Spoon' which is set in the middle of the quilt. Written on the description by the artist herself on the St. Lawrence Website as a reminder that, 'All of Earth's resources are to be shared by all life, not to be hoarded, not to be fought over, and not to be overused. One takes what is needed and no more, always ensuring that there are resources left for those that follow'.

The finished product is made from cotton and wool fabrics, leather cording and held together with polyester thread. It was supposed to premiere at the summit but due to Covid-19, months of planning had to be shifted to a virtual event. While there is an element lost when seeing it virtually, it still remains to be a beautiful piece that everyone will have a chance to see. Along with other Akwesasne artists involved in the summit, this quilt represents the importance of water and preserving it for future generations.