Margaret Harrison
Margaret Harrison is an accomplished Métis textile artist. She practices Métis-style floral embroidery and is one of few remaining Métis women who continue to make hooked rag rugs. She grew up in the Katepwa Lake road allowance community in southern Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley and is a member of the extended Racette, Pelletier and Cardinal families. She is a mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She was taught to sew and make hooked rugs by her mother, Adeline Pelletier dit Racette and then mentored by other women in her family. These women were recognized for sewing skills and making and selling hooked rag rugs throughout the Valley region, helping to support the family. Margaret continues to practice these art forms to honour the artistry, creativity, hard work and dedication of Métis women.
Margaret’s work has been featured in two documentaries produced by the Gabriel Dumont Institute. In summer 2022, her work was showcased in two exhibits of traditional Métis hooked rugs at Batoche and Motherwell National Historic Sites. One of her rugs is to be shown in Prairie Interlace: Weaving, Modernisms and the Expanded Frame, 1960s-2000s, a travelling art installation at the Nickle Gallery in Calgary and later at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina. Most recently, two of her works were featured as part of Remai Modern Art Gallery’s Storied Objects: Métis Arts in Relation exhibit in Saskatoon, which opened in September 2022.
