Janice Brant Kahehtoktha
VISUAL ARTIST
Janice is a Kanyenke’ha’ka (Mohawk) artist from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. She was born and raised in the community. Janice enjoys learning and sharing her Mohawk language, culture, and history.
Janice works with natural materials such as Walnut Ink and Birch Bark, corn husk, clay, vine, stone, feather, and shell. She also paints using acrylic, oil, and water paint on paper, canvas, leather, and wood. She does needle-felting with wool, wire sculpting, and paper-making from cattails, hemp, mulberry, and other plant materials from her garden and natural surroundings.
Her art and writing are inspired by the natural world and teachings of the Rotinonhson:ni/Six Nations Confederacy. Janice has been creating and expressing herself through art and writing since childhood. Janice has a number of paintings in both private and public collections nationally.
Log Ring Printing
We wanted to honour the trees that we would use for the mortars and make a record of the size, age and condition of the logs, both Oak and Ash. As First Nations we have a spiritual connection to the trees and we give thanks for the many gifts the people receive from food, medicine and tools, to the air we breathe.
Janice and Ken prepared the logs for printing by sanding, wetting, brushing and burning the logs to expose the rings.
Using water and a cloth, excess water is removed along with any loose particles. Walnut ink is a rich dark brown liquid. It is applied liberally to the stamp and black acrylic paint is added. The sponge roller was used. When the log surface was fully and evenly covered with the ink and paint mixture, the paper is placed centered on the log stamp. Then the paper is rubbed and smoothed gently, being careful not to move or crease the paper. After a few minutes the paper was lifted to reveal the print of the log rings, cracks and bark edges. The prints were left flat to dry and cure for several hours.
In addition to printing from the logs, using a slightly different approach, prints of the Ash Tree inner bark were made.
It is very exciting to begin the steps of print making on paper. Reflecting on the Oak,Ash, and Walnut: on relationships and interconnectedness, reflecting on all the trees, fire, water, air/breathe, and life itself.
Walnut ink was first introduced to Janice by a friend and wool artist, Judy Hatton. Walnut has long been used as a medium in arts for stain, dye and ink. Janice uses Walnut Ink and a duck feather to draw on Birch bark and paper.
Janice Brant’s work is on permanent display at the gallery. To see more of her work go to our online SHOP.
Constructing the Log Mortar and Pestle
The log mortar and pestle has been an important tool in Haudenosaunee food traditions. It was part of food preparations and ceremony. As a seed keeper in the Kanyenke’haka (Mohawk Nation) and part of the Haudenosaunee League of Six Nations, Janice has immersed herself in learning about the Three Sisters Agricultural complex and other food crops of her ancestors, from gardening and seed saving to seed and food preparation, cooking and storage. Constructing the log mortars and pestles is both cultural revitalization and reconciliation. It reminds us where we have come from, where we are presently, and where we want to go in the future. When we learn and practice our culture, language and spirituality, we our healing ourselves and reconnecting the pathways with Creation and one another as children of Mother Earth.
Using traditional methods, complemented only when needed with modern tools, we have collaborated to build log mortars and pestles; similar to those used by the Haudenosaunee. The log mortar and pestle are useful to pulverise corn kernels into flour, to crack nuts, sunflowers hulls and more. Relying on a variety of sources from Kanyenke’ha’ka (Mohawk) knowledge keeper’s oral accounts and demonstrations with their own mortar and pestle to written descriptions, and photographs from books, we began burning the logs with embers to form a bowl.
Early in our project we found the Ash log would not be suitable and so we have included them unfinished to show the process of hollowing out the log using fire and embers. The Oak log which was highly recommended as the best for making mortars, because of their strength, took much longer to burn. In order to make a good tool the logs needed to be a good size, which translated to a fairly old tree. Recognizing the age of the tree and its life journey in our current context made it even more important to honour and show respect for our tree brothers and their many gifts to human beings and all life upon the earth.
The double-ended pestles are shaped with a drawknife to suit each log mortar. The finished pestle is approximately 4 to 5 feet in length and 4 to 6 inches in diameter.
-Janice Brant
Kenneth (Ken) Post
Ken Post is Ojibway and was raised in the Kawartha Highlands, north of Peterborough, Ontario. He is a member of the M’Chigeeng First Nation. Ken lives in Tyendinaga Mohawk territory along with his wife Janice Brant. Together they volunteer for Kenhte:ke Seed Sanctuary & Learning Centre. Ken and Janice collaborate on art projects for cultural and linguistic revitalization, such as the log mortar and pestle construction.
Janice Brant’s work is on permanent display at the gallery. To see more of her work go to our online SHOP.