heirloom quilts as mnemonic devices
As part of anthropologist Nadia N. Mbonde's ethnographic film and embodiment projects Embodying Ancestry (2018) and The Womb (2018), heirloom quilts that I inherited from great-great ancestors on both sides became materials to examine generational trauma and white supremacy.
"It's pretty powerful, laying here with these quilts. It's exciting, but it's heavy, too. I get this sense of being at the beach and how the water hits the sand on the shore and flows through the sand on the way out. It's this coming together with my ancestors."
"It's interesting to think of the history of the fabrics within each square... Quilts in general have a sense of preserving history that feels really important - the fullness of history and the fullness of lineage. So I feel responsible to take care of the quilts. Some of them have already been faded. There is already wear and tear - which I can't really control - but there is a sense of going forward, which I can control and I want to honor that."
"Now is that time to be holding your ancestors with you whoever they are, whatever they believe, whatever they've done, however they've lived, whatever your patterns are that you've carried in your DNA. I don't know those ancestors, but they are imprinted upon me. It's important to just be with them."
