The Wendat traditionally obtained quahog shells from the Atlantic Coast to craft them into cylindrical beads. Wampum belts woven with these beads carry the memory and worldview of the ancestors. This medium, which encodes speech and relationships into visual symbols, has been for centuries at the heart of the political and spiritual life of the Wendat and other people who share the wampum tradition.



In the winter of 2025, a Wendat wampum from the Bank of Canada Collection, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, was returned to Wendake; a rare event for the community, which welcomed it as a long-lost relative returning home. It was in this spirit of reunion and reconnection that, a few weeks later, members of the nation participated in a wampum workshop to draw inspiration from their ancestral principles and create their own piece.



This exhibition brings together a selection of the wampum pieces created in that context, as well as a piece by the workshop instructor, Nicolas Renaud. Together, the works weave a web of relationships, giving meaning to kinship ties and connections to ancestors, the land, and the living beings that inhabit it. Taking various forms—and sometimes combining traditional shell beads with new materials—these objects represent personal paths shaped by the teachings of wampum, its language, and its power to communicate thoughts across time and space.