My Father’s Tools – Heather Condo (2017)

As a pre-pottery Human technology basketmaking and clothing has been an important part of the ancestral Human life style. The earliest archaeological evidence for weaving comes from the Eurasian Paleolithic. The earliest evidence for basketry comes from sites in Israel dated back to 23,000 years before present. Mastering use of plant fibers for weaving enabled Humans to broaden their resource utilization space including creative design of fish traps.

Here in this meditative short by filmmaker Heather Condo, we see Stephen Jerome, harvest and process a White ash tree to produce a basket. Stephen is a member of Mi’kmaq Tribe indigenous to Canada’s Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the northeastern region of Maine. Stephen learned the art from his father and continues the production of traditional baskets.

Wapikoni Mobile is a Canadian travelling mediation, training and audiovisual creation studio dedicated to Indigenous youth. Since 2004, Wapikoni has visited over 67 communities in Canada, Latin America and abroad and accompanied 4,600 participants who worked to direct 1,000 short films translated into several languages. These films have received 154 awards and honours at national and international festivals.

This post is a part of the Human Nature series.