Textiles have a tremendous power to hold our culture and identity, more so than most understand. For thousands of years the Coast Salish people of the Pacific North West, which straddles the border between Canada and the United States, made unique ceremonial blankets and robes from dog hair. Their woolly dogs long pre-dated contact with European colonisers and were specially bred for their lustrous coats. The coverings, which were woven or twined on looms, hold great meaning for the Coast Salish people and are at the centre of their sense of identity, and even lthough the dog hair is no longer available, blankets are still an important part of ceremonies.

When colonial administrations on both sides of the border tried to stamp out the culture of the First Nations people, the blankets and robes were burnt, and the dogs that had survived for millennia disappeared, to become just a memory. The very few blankets that do survive are held in museums and no longer belong to the community.

But new methods of analysing fibre and textiles are adding to the important oral histories of the Coast Salish families themselves and beginning to tell us more about the woolly dogs, where they came from, what they looked like, how old their lineage is, and how they were bred.

This episode is about what happened to the Coast Salish people and how important textiles are to our sense of identity. It is also about valuing both oral accounts and science in a 'two eyed seeing' approach to research.

For more information about this episode and pictures of the people and places mentioned in this episode please go to https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-7/.

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