Cradleboard

We are cradleboard makers. My husband, Babe, constructs, hand carves, and paints each board. As a textile artist, I bead the cradleboard wraps. Our community of Kahnawake (across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal) has a distinct way of designing cradleboards, and this style has remained consistent for over a century. While we have done our best to honor older designs in our cradleboards, we have also expanded into storytelling by using the board as a canvas to share our own stories. Older cradleboards such as this one give us greater insight into the time period of the maker. While they appear mostly decorative, the meanings behind the designs hold great significance for Mohawk communities. The birds carrying the seeds, for example, represent the natural world and its continuance, while the flowers symbolize the earth’s fertility that grows throughout generations. Inspiration can come in many forms. Mostly we look to the natural world for our designs but we also draw upon historical or recent events in order to create something that will speak to its time. – Carla Hemlock and Donald ‘Babe’ Hemlock