Wally Dion
MEDIATORS
© Wally Dion.
For many years, Wally Dion has been working with a venerated and cherished symbol to North American Indigenous people: the eight-pointed star, or Morning Star. Its precise origin story and what it represents varies from tribe to tribe. But across Native Nations, it commonly appears on regalia, beadwork, and blankets, which are gifted at celebratory rites of passage for either the giver or the receiver. Dion, who is Yellow Quill First Nation, has become an unconventional quilter of star blankets. The fascination began before he knew how to sew, his first “quilts” being made of circuit board pieces that spoke about environmental waste and Indigenous activism. A decade and a half later, Dion is skillfully equipped with a needle and thread, electing for translucent, monochromatic material with which to sew the motif into giant flags.
His four Prairie Tall Grass Quilts, named Bison, Fire, Grass, and Winter, exist to represent the native ecosystems that flourished in the Great Plains region before the arrival of settlers. Whether shown on their own or superimposed onto one another, the flags are stunning. He says, “I understand that I am working in an area, geographically as well as emo- tionally, where people feel a great sense of denial and dissonance towards their colonial histories. I sometimes feel that there is a lot of weight in these topics and it would be nice to have a place of visual relaxation and calm.”
B. 1976, Saskatoon, Canada
Lives and works in Binghamton, NY
wallydion.com
@wally_dion
WW81
Wally Dion, Bison Qulit, 2023, Fabric and copper. Courtesy of the artist, photo by R & Company.