Building a Wigwam

The Millbrook Cultural Centre is home to a number of interactive galleries sharing the history and culture of the Mi'kmaw people.

Our newest exhibit is a wigwam, constructed inside the centre using traditional construction methods. Walk with us through the step by step process of building the wigwam.

We started with an empty space and a planning meeting with Todd Labrador from the Wild Cat First Nation in Annapolis Valley.

The wigwam will be laced together using spruce root. A wigwam will require almost 700ft of lacings!

After gathering the spruce root, the root needs to be split. It takes patience and practice to split the root, and the work makes your hands dirty, sore, but also strong.

The split root needs to be coiled and then boiled to remove the bark. We used a big pot outside to boil our spruce root.

Once it is peeled, it is a flexible and durable lacing that can be split into narrower strips that will hold the entire wigwam together.

We started with just three poles, lashing them together at the top...

We attached a circular coil of spruce using the spruce lacings to the inside of the frame and laid the rest of the poles around the structure. In total, we used fifteen poles for the interior framing.

You'll notice there is a slightly wider opening between two of the poles to allow for an entrance.

This is what our frame looks like from underneath. You'll notice that all of the poles do not meet at the centre.

Smaller branches are added horizontally, around the frame, for support from top to bottom. These are lashed to the poles using the spruce lacings.

We had lots of enthusiastic help tying the pieces together.

When the spruce root lacing dries, it will be durable and hold more tightly.

The outer covering of our wigwam is made of birch bark. It is a challenge finding significant quantities of birch bark in Nova Scotia today. We were able to collect some pieces of good size.

Although our wigwam is indoors, traditionally the wigwam was taken down, moved, and set up again. The birch bark was simply rolled up and used again and again.

Before the birch bark is wrapped around the frame,it first needs to be laid out to flatten.This is preferably done in the sun to gently warm up its natural oils and make it workable. It can be ready is less than an hour.

The birch bark is sewn onto the wigwam structure using the spruce root lacing. The "inside" of the bark face the "outside" of the structure. Start from the bottom and work in rows to the top.

Etching can be done on the birch bark to add decorative and symbolic touches.

Another layer of poles (these are left rough) are laid against the layer of birch bark.

The inside of our wigwam is warm and filled with positive energy. Thank you for following along with us.

Please come by for a visit.

We wish to acknowledge and thank our funding partner Communites, Culture and Heritage for their support.

The story of building the wigwam at Millbrook Cultural & Heritage Centre.