Porcupine Quills Were Used Before The Introduction of Glass Beads, They Were Dyed And Embroidered Onto Clothing, Moccasins, etc. For Use, The Quills Need To Be Soaked And Flattened; In The Old Days, Women Would Soak Them In Their Mouths And Pull Them Out Through Their Teeth To Flatten Them.

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I Wanted To Feel The Same Thing My People Did Years Ago. I Can’t Speak My Language, But I Can Fill My Mouth With Quills, Like Words I’ll Never Know. I Hold Them On My Tongue, Wanting To Choke a Little Out of Sadness, But Not Letting Myself. Placing The Quills In My Mouth, I Inhibit My Ability To Speak. Approaching People One By One Maintaining Eye Contact I Slowly Remove A Quill From My Mouth And Offer It To Them. This Intimate Gesture Builds a Temporary Connection Between Us. I Repeat This Gesture Cycling Through The Audience, Replacing The Quills In My Mouth As I go. Cry’in Out Loud in English is Inherently Colonial; With Little Access to My Indigenous Languages, I Sometimes Find Power In Silence.