Birch Bark Biting: Background

by Jessica Wesaquate and Andrea Rogers

"Tansi ...
Hello"

Birch bark biting is the art of dentally
perforating designs on intricately folded sheets of paper-thin bark.
The technique is known to have been practised by Ojibwa (or Chippewa),
Cree and other Algonquian groups who used birchbark extensively in fabricating
domestic containers, architectural coverings, canoes and pictographic
scrolls. Bark biting was a casual art among Aboriginal women, a means
of experimenting with designs that might later be translated into porcupine
quill or bead appliqué on bark containers or hide clothing. It
was a form of recreation or friendly competition.

Work Cited:

Elizabeth McLuhan and M. Zoccole, Wigwas:
Birch Biting by Angelique Merasty (1983).