Article

Fingerweaving

The end of a woven sash with a zigzag pattern and braided ends. The dominant color is red with blue, green, brown, yellow, white zigzag stripes. — Fingerweaving detail of a ceinture flechee.
GRPO 525
Photo courtesy of T. Turner

Fingerweaving is the art of making material with the fingers instead of a loom. Prior to European contact Indigenous peoples in North America wove and twined with plants and animal fibers for a multitude of purposes. However, the use of wool and glass beads to make items in North America can be attributed to the Fur Trade's import of European materials. We know the beautiful, dense, warp-faced arrow and lightning motif sashes created by changing the weft that we associate with the Fur Trade are uniquely tied to North America.

In North America fingerweaving is most often used to produce sashes, garters, and bag straps. Sashes vary in complexity but are evidenced as a highly stocked fur trade good. Sashes inventoried by the fur trade companies were primarily produced in and around Montreal, Canada but they were also made by individuals. We do not know whether it was Indigenous peoples that taught European women to weave this way or vice versa but we do know for sure that sashes were used by coureurs de bois or voyageurs, and elaborate sashes were gifted reciprocally between Indigenous and European men of status. While there are many stories and folk tales of sashes being used as a tumpline or as rescue rope, it was not their primary purpose, which was to be used as a belt and oftentimes as tight belt/back support to treat abdominal hernias or herniated discs, as there were no surgical interventions or treatments at the time.

There are two popular styles of sash from that era, warp-faced and open-faced sashes. These are produced by hand with the fingers manipulating the threads to create cloth. At one point the Hudson Bay Company began importing sashes. Sadly many people associate the Coventry, loom woven sash with fingerweaving but the truth is the Coventry sash killed the fingerwoven sash production industry in North America. In the mid-1800's the Hudson Bay Company stopped hiring women to make sashes for their inventory and instead imported loom replicas from England. The difference between the fingerwoven sash and the loom sash is hours of work versus hundreds of hours of work, cost to produce, and the strength and integrity of the fabric.

The Ceinture Fléchée

Many people associate the fingerwoven woven sash with the voyageurs as it was an essential item in the voyageurs camp kit. As a result of its use in the fur trade and its manufacturing origins in Quebec, the sash also known as ceinture fléchée, which literally translates from French to English as arrow sash, is a symbol of French Canadians and the Metis Nation (children born of the fur trade). However it is important in telling the full story of that sash that we honour that it is not exclusive to French Canadians and Métis people and in fact, in a modern-day context authentic traditional fingerweaving is most often seen in First Nations pow wow regalia. While there are many people that still traditional fingerweave, mass production is simply not possible for these sashes. Every sash requires an intensive amount of human interaction with the threads, it is a labour of love that is difficult for many consumers to justify the price in our fast fashion society but as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for."

Article courtesy of Tiffany Turner, a Métis person and textile craftsperson, who descends from a long line of fur traders. She was raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario but was born in Fort Frances, Ontario. Her family names are Morriseau, Daniels, and Goodwin. The Morriseaus were Hudson Bay Company (HBC) and North West Company (NWC) labourers, bowmen, middlemen, and mail carriers. The Morriseaus can be placed at Grand Portage, Fort William, Hungry Hall, Fort Alexander, Nipigon House, and Michicopoten in fur trade post journals, expedition logs and HBC company employment records.