How are the large cedar mats made?
Basket weaving is one of the oldest First Nations crafts. The Lil’wat are particularly known for their craftsmanship and their unique basket weaving patterns. Master basket weaver Antúl’ya7 Vera Edmonds learned the art from her grandmother when she was a little girl, but didn’t weave regularly until she became a grandmother – when it became important to pass tradition to her children and grandchildren. Vera was asked to help select and train a number of weavers from her Nation. She was given the challenge of making three mats – in larger dimensions than had ever been made in their history. Using the ingenuity for which her people are known, Vera extrapolated the method for making the bottom of a basket and extended it to the size of the mats. This required specially cut wooden slats for the backbone of the weaving and cutting the cherry and cedar bark in unusual dimensions. While baskets are made by individual weavers, each of the mats required two people at a time to work on it – one
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