Lillian Burke - Cheticamp
Lillian Burke and the Story of the Chticamp Hooked Rug
Photograph by David Fairchild, Archives of the Fairchild Botanic Gardens, Coral Gables, Florida.
On the western shore of Cape Breton Island, from Margaree Harbour to the Cape Breton Highlands, stretches a 25-mile ribbon of highway wedged between the flat-topped hills and the sea. Picturesque fishing villages dot the coast. In winter the sea freezes. Ice floes extend as far as the eye can see. The region, known as Chéticamp, is home to descendants of the French pioneers who settled Nova Scotia in the 1600s. Cousins of the Louisiana Cajuns, a handful of Acadian families found refuge on this coast in the wake of the Deportation of the Acadian French from modern-day Nova Scotia (1755). Today Chéticamp retains its own language and culture, and that culture can boast a distinctive style of rug hooking . . .
This article is from the September/October 2014 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.