wi_mburns_studio_113

Mary Burns, weaver.
Ancestral Women Woven Portraits: handwoven jacquard portraits. Partial Exhibition at the Madeline Island Historical Museum on Madeline Island, Wisconsin (Lake Superior, WI).
Maple Sugaring - 50” x 32”
The Ojibwe called April "the maple sugar moon" because from March to early April, when the night frosted and the days would thaw, maple sap began to run in the sugar maple trees. For the Ojibwe, this was a time of renewal when family groups reunited and friends who had not seen each other over the winter would work together, making the sugaring seem more like a festival than work. Traditionally, women assumed the principal role in sugar-making. Most of the sugar-maple groves were owned matrilineally - in the name of the woman.

From CVA's booklet (Wausau, WI) :
From March to early April, when the nights frosted and the days would thaw, maple sap began to run in the sugar maple trees. Family groups who’d not seen each other over the winter reunited and worked together. The trees were tapped and the sap gathered every day. The finished product took one of three forms: syrup, sugar, or cake. To make sugar, they slowly boiled the sap to a thick syrup and poured it into a trough, where it was “worked” until it crystallized into grains. To make cakes, or “hard sugar,” they poured the thick syrup into makuks (birch bark containers) and let it cool. The maple sugar flavored vegetables, cereals, fish, and meats, was mixed with water for a sweet drink, and was an important trade item.After cooking the first sugar of the year, the people always offered a small amount to the Great Spirit, or Manidoo.

Traditionally, women assumed the principal role in sugar-making, and most of the maple-sugar groves were owned matrilineally – in the name of a woman.

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