Mi'kmaq Wooden Art

Lana Thomas is Mi'kmaw and a member of Eel Ground First Nation in New Brunswick. Having been born and raised in Ottawa, she grew up feeling disconnected from her community and wanted to create something that gave her a connection to her roots. She decided to create a wall hanging of a traditional Mi'kmaw 8-pointed Star, which represents the 7 original Mi'kmaw nations with the 8th representing the 1752 Treaty with the British.

In 2017, with the help of her father, she created a prototype of a wooden star. Then the chief of her community ordered six of them, and it blossomed from there!

The creation process of her wooden stars is lengthy; it takes about 14 hours to make one star. The wood is cut, then assembled, torched, sanded, stained and then verathaned with a clear coat. She sources all of her materials locally; the wood comes from a local mill. Lana creates her stars in three different sizes and has branched off into creating other home decor items such as cushion covers, prints, and bags.

WE-CAN participant Lana Thomas guided by traditional symbol of the Mi'kmaq star

Facebook article on WE-CAN Project at Queens University