A Virtual Exhibit Highlighting Leelanau’s Anishinaabek Arts Is Now Live

In recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day, the Leelanau Historical Society Museum is sharing a recent addition to its Traditional Anishinaabek Arts Room: a virtual exhibit that highlights the First Peoples of the Leelanau Peninsula — specifically their legacy of artisan basket-making.

The Leelanau Historical Society wanted to augment its current Anishinaabek basket collection with the human stories behind the works of art. With the support of the children of the basket room's patron, Katherine Hall Wheeler, the Historical Society collaborated with Laura Quackenbush, the original curator of the traditional Anishinaabek arts collection, to share more of the culture and history of basket-making in Leelanau County.

Quackenbush reached out to local Native American elders, Hank Bailey and Linda Woods (pictured above).

A video, “This Basket Is My Ancestor,” produced by Quackenbush and filmmaker Rich Brauer, with insights and stories from Bailey and Woods, explores the human connection behind the baskets.

According to the curators, “filming day was an intimate experience filled with meaningful stories, deeply felt and respectfully heard. As the last take was filmed, we were greeted with the sight of a bald eagle outside the window.”

Watch the video and experience the complete virtual exhibit here.