Experience the art of quillwork through an exhibition talk and live demonstration with Monica Raphael, an Anishinaabe-Lakota artist, knowledge keeper, and fifth-generation quill worker. Through stories, cultural insights, and hands-on artistry, Monica will explore how traditional practices carry knowledge across generations and remain vibrant expressions of creativity today.
Light refreshments will be served.
Registration link coming soon!
The program is in conjunction with the exhibition, Gaawii Eta-Go Aawizinoo Gaawiye Mkakoons / It’s Not Just a Quill Box, on view September 1 – November 25, 2026.
More About Monica Raphael
The Anishinaabe word for “old woman” is mindimooyehn and when broken down translates to “one that holds it all together;” the mindimooyehn is the foundation for many Anishinaabe families. Monica Jo Raphael (Anishinaabe-Lakota) considers herself a mindimooyehh who likes to create art and share stories of creation from Mother Earth. A culture bearer, knowledge keeper, grandmother, multi-media artist and fifth generation quill worker, Monica has dedicated her life to preserving her culture’s traditional teachings, stories, language, and practices, and sharing her cultural knowledge with others to be carried on.
Born to the Ginew “golden eagle” clan of the Anishinaabek, Monica is an enrolled citizen of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa, a descendant of Chief Spotted Tail of the Sičánğu Lakota, and the Huron and Pokagon Potawatomi. She learned the traditional art form of quill and birch box making while living in the village of Peshawbestown on the Grand Traverse Band Reservation. Quickly mastering both the woodland flora and fauna designs for which her family was known, Monica has excelled in creating even more complex designs while using traditional materials and techniques along with bright modern colors to create a modern twist to a timeless art form. When creating her interpretation of an art that predated European contact and the introduction of glass seed beads, Monica feels as if she is having a dialogue with her Ancestors. She continues to be inspired to create art as a form of peaceful resistance; a way to share that “We as Native peoples are still proudly here and have survived despite the devastating effects that settler colonialism created for our Ancestors and people.”
Her award-winning work has quickly become known all over the world for its clear intention to craftsmanship, and unwavering dedication to patience. In 2021 she was awarded a First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship and the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation LIFT Fellowship she has received awards at the Smithsonian National Craft Show, SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market, Cherokee Art Market, Eiteljorg Indian Market Festival, Heard Indian Market, Abbe Museum Indian Market, Autry Indian Market, Southeastern Art Show and Market, Artesian Arts Festival, and the Woodland Indian Market. Her celebrated work can be found in several museum and personal collections, including the Michigan State University Museum, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, the, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and the Gochman Family Collection at the Forge Project.
Monica is presently the Hoback Curator of Great Lakes Native Art, Cultures and Community Engagement working to ensure Indigenous ways of knowing, practices and perspectives are included in the care of the collection as well as all aspects of programming and content at the at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.