‘Quiltivist’ serging forward to piece together stories of rights from Queer elders

Picton “quiltavist” Bill Stearman travelled across Canada as part of an 18 month quest to stitch together important stories about the progression of Queer rights, as told by elders.

“While travelling I interviewed 60+ Queer seniors and recorded their stories – while they are still around to tell them,” said Stearman. “These important stories will be recorded in 12 quilts based on supreme court decisions and legislative acts of Parliament that advanced queer rights. The quilts will be displayed first in the County Arts Lab next July, with plans for the show to travel Canada.”

Stearman’s project, “Quilting the Progression of Queer Rights in Canada” was juried this spring to receive a $19,000 grant from the Province of Ontario, through the Multi and Inter-Arts Project stream with the Ontario Arts Council.

Earlier this year, the project also received funding through the LGBT Purge Fund.

“The first instalment of the grant assisted with my travel to almost all parts of Canada visiting quilts groups, Queer groups and community groups to lecture and lead workshops about my social justice activism, and about this project.”

“The grant from the Ontario Arts Council will allow me to hire many other artists as I continue this project. Their skills will compliment and augment mine and will greatly enhance this project. While not all of these folks will be from the County, the majority will be. All will identify as Queer, or as Queer positive.”

He publicly thanked the two organizations for the support during a gathering in Picton this week, in which updated fans and friends on his activities and made a presentation on queer rights and advocacy.

“I’m proud of the project, and incredibly honoured that I get to do this work,” he said.

“Our stories matter and should live on to reflect the past, enrich the present and guide the future,” Stearman writes on his website.

“A special emphasis will be placed on the LGBT Purge, the decades from the 1950s through 1990s when the Canadian Government actively sought out ‘homosexuals’, and removed them from the Civil Service, the military and the RCMP. This is a rarely talked about, but critical part of Canadian history; a part that hindered the development of queer rights nation-wide for decades, while ruining the lives of so many Canadians.”

Along with the quilts and exhibit of the quilts at the end of the project, he plans two films created and edited so that portions can be included in the quilts, with other parts accompanying the quilts as part of the exhibit. Potentially, he adds there may also be a book, and a play.

1971 Before We Could Ask 53″ x 64″ 2023: In 1971, same sex sexual activity was newly legal in Canada, but finding a partner was not. The Hanky Code was invented in 1971, so that we could recognize each other and know interests. It was a way to avoid police harassment, job loss and public shame. – Bill Stearman quilt  billstearman.ca

“As a gay man born in 1950, I have lived Canadian Queer history. Growing up during a time when homosexuality was both criminalized and socially condemned, I have seen remarkable progress. Yet, I remain acutely aware of the fragility of these advancements. Hate and fear still simmer just beneath the surface.

“Queer history lives in stories and telling these stories is vital to many audiences. For Queer folk, they remind us of both our progress and the work still ahead. For young people, they fill the gaps left by the absence of queer history in schools. For heterosexual audiences, they provide insight into lives lived on their periphery. For new Canadians, they reinforce national values of inclusion and equity.”

The quilt pieces, he notes, will push boundaries.

“They will be textile-based, immersive, multimedia quilted wall hangings incorporating 3D elements, QR codes linking to audiovisual material, and innovative techniques including fabric ‘sticky notes’ and printed newspaper clippings and more. Inspired by the Progress Pride Flag, these quilts will resemble living message boards that tell the stories collected from Queer elder interviews.

Among the more than 300 quilts have been entries juried into countless shows across North America and the United Kingston and he has won several major awards.

In 2013, he began making quilts as a way to deal with pain from a leg injury, and quickly it became a passion, and his preferred medium for storytelling.

Since a life-saving liver transplant in 2021, he says he has “become obsessed with the notion that he’s been gifted extra years of life, solely to be an agent of positive change; to make a difference.”

Stearman adds he is “driven by a desire to change the world; to make it a better place; to speak his truth – even if his voice shakes.”

Master quilter Bill Stearman ‘will be silent no more’