History of hooked mats preserved in provincial registry

All right, our little magnifying loop. Hooked mats or rugs can be hung on display, tucked away for safekeeping, or laid on the living room floor to be stepped on. But regardless of where they're kept, a group of New Brunswick volunteers is working to document each mat's story so its history is never forgotten. On Saturday, members of New Brunswick's Hooked Mat Registry set up at Government House in Fredericton to welcome rug hookers interested in adding their works of art to the digital archive. Judy Morrison says the registry plays an important role in preserving the province's history. It's the history that brings the object alive. So we get mats that are quite often very beautiful, but then you find out this person, you know, was working and had 12 kids to take care of in a farm and, you know, was doing all this stuff and then not just putting a mat together so it went in the door, but hand-dyeing the materials and cutting the materials and making a beautiful design. To be registered, every mat is given a unique number tag. Then its owner is interviewed about the piece's history. From there, it's inspected and photographed. The mat registry is maintained in partnership with provincial volunteers and the New Brunswick Museum in St. John, where a physical copy of the registry lives. This is not a trivial activity. This is a historical activity, and I really am full of admiration for all the ones involved trying to document this for history's sake. To make the list, mats have to be at least 25 years old and made by someone born or living in New Brunswick. Jean Ketch has been a rug hooker since the 80s, and the two mats she brought met both of those requirements. I made this with rug hooking, and I used recycled wool and hand-dyed materials that I dyed myself. It's a bit of history, I think. It goes on, and it's developing over the years. Why is it important to you that your rug is being registered? Just so that someday down the road it will be noted that Jean Ketch made a rug. There are more than 600 mats already documented in the registry, and about 40 more were added at the event in Fredericton. Volunteers say registry events happen in communities throughout the province about twice a year.