The latest edition of The Maine Thing Quarterly features a chapter on the Wabanaki, which includes interviews with the Abbe's Director of Collections & Interpretation, Julia Clark, and Museum Educator, George Neptune. #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth
Original paintings illustrate the various legends of Kluskap and his adventures. Image courtesy Dozay.
The Abbe Museum is pleased to announce the opening of Kluskap of the Wabanaki, an exhibit by Maliseet artist Dozay. Consisting of original paintings, the exhibit illustrates the various legends of Kluskap and his adventures across the Wabanaki homeland, using landmarks that tell his story. It will be on display from November 5 through December 19, 2015, with a reception and meet the artist event on Saturday, November 28th from 1 - 3 pm at the Museum.
“I chose this subject because, in every eastern state and province, there are landmarks that the Wabanaki people have always known to be important,” said Dozay. “These landmarks tell of Kluskap and his many teachings. I learned, after showing this exhibit previously, that it was totally new to many people, even among the Wabanaki people.”
According to Wabanaki oral histories, Kluskap–or Koluskap, Gluskap, Glooskap, and Gluskabe–made the world habitable for human beings and taught people to live wisely. Kluskap stories have been told and retold over many generations, and these legends have always been known to teach lessons of values, and the characteristics of the animals and Mother Earth. Kluskap was a positive force with all Wabanaki tribes, and people from all the communities have written and illustrated many versions of the Kluskap legends.
“I have discovered that most legends are simply told and not illustrated,” Dozay stated. “I feel and have experienced that our Wabanaki tribes and cultural significance are known and considered significant among our own people, but lacking in mainstream Aboriginal teachings. Wabanaki ways were not taught in school or even recognized as a distinct Aboriginal culture, and my objective is to make our own people aware of our hero Kluskap by illustrating his adventures in combination with the importance of our Mother Earth.”
Kluskap and Grandmother in Stone Canoe. Image courtesy Dozay.
Dozay, one of a very few professional Native artists in Atlantic Canada, has spent much of her life cultivating her passion for art. Growing up in Western New Brunswick on the Tobique First Nation, she left the banks of the Tobique at 18 to pursue a formal education at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Although she had always displayed an interest in art, her intention had initially been to pursue a career in education. It wasn’t until her third year of college that Dozay decided to switch to the fine arts program and pursue a full-time career as an artist. This is her first first show in the U.S.
The Kluskap of the Wabanaki project is unique in that it will eventually include all Wabanaki Kluskap legends of the east. The exhibit will be on display in the Community Gallery of the Abbe Museum’s downtown Bar Harbor location until December 19. Admission is $8 per adult, $7 for senior citizens, $4 for children (11 – 17), and children 10 and under are free. Admission is free to Native Americans and Abbe members.
Maliseet artist Gina Brooks and the Abbe's Director of Collections & Interpretation, Julia Clark
TheDiane Kopec Collection Fund at the Abbe Museum was created to acquire works by living Native American artists. The collection reflects the vitality and vibrancy of Native American art today, and we recently added a birchbark box by Maliseet artist Gina Brooks to this important collection.
The imagery on the box includes the wampum pattern representing the Wabanaki Confederacy, the people holding up that confederacy, and on the lid, the double curve that represents the unity of the four tribes. Native people sent and received Wampum woven into belts as a form of communication. Through the geometric patterns of the beads, Native people wove wampum designs to remember and recall important events like oral histories, treaties, and agreements. These belts were brought back and forth from important events, and passed down from generation to generation.
Gina Brooks, Maliseet, is from St. Mary’s First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada, and resides in nearby Fredericton. She considers herself an artist informed by Wabanaki traditional knowledge, and her art includes brown ash basketry, porcupine quill and birch bark basketry, carving, and print making. Her original prints include acrylic and ink, and lithographs, monotypes, and copper etch plating. Her basketry and print art has been commissioned by private art collectors and Aboriginal organizations across Canada, and her work has been exhibited at the Charlotte Street Arts Center in Fredericton, Sudbury Nature Center in St. Andrews, (Weaving Traditions), and is featured in the New Brunswick Museum’s Wabanaki contemporary art collection.
For the past 90 years, Santa Fe Indian Market has been bringing together the most talented Native American artists from around the US. As the largest Native arts fair in the world, the market covered the Santa Fe Plaza and surrounding streets this past weekend, and consisted of a myriad of events — galas, art openings, music and experiences, fashion shows, and the much anticipated juried art show. Several Wabanaki artists were in attendance this year, and a couple are coming back to the East Coast with some impressive ribbons.
Abbe Museum Fellow Emma Soctomah, Passamaquoddy, won first and second place in the Youth Division, which is her third consecutive year winning the top two spots.
Sara Sockbeson, Penobscot, won first place in Miniatures and second place in Contemporary. Her two winning baskets featured deer antler handles, which she sliced into cross-sections and then carved and polished each one, drilling a hole through the center. Sarah has said that all the antler handles she makes are unique for each basket.
Abbe Museum Educator George Neptune, Passamaquoddy, received an Honorable Mention in Traditional Basketry. George has admitted that he likes turning his baskets into sculptures, and that they’re all slight adaptations on traditional methods he has been taught.
The market is definitely a meeting of buyer and artist, but it proves year on year to be so much more than just that. It’s a place where artists gather to share their creations, their traditions, and their stories. It helps make possible the continuation of traditional life, whether on a pueblo outside Santa Fe or in a small town in Maine.
More official results of all the winners will be posted soon. The Best of Show winners list is currently available on the Santa Fe Indian Market website.
Congratulations to all the Wabanaki artists!
“We are a 100% Native owned company with a staff of all-Wabanaki tour guides," said Jennifer Pictou, President and CEO, and a member of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs. "I’m looking forward to bringing a cross-cultural look to the ghostly side of Bar Harbor’s past, as well as tell some of the more fantastic tales of our Wabanaki heritage.”
In the first half of this program, join Museum Educator and Kikehtahsuwiw: It Heals Curator George Neptune, Passamaquoddy, and other museum visitors in a dialogue focused on the roles of women in Wabanaki and other cultures. Then, join a panel of Wabanaki women for a discussion of the Kikehtahsuwiw: It Heals exhibit, and how the traditional role of women in Wabanaki cultures informs their contemporary work within the Passamaquoddy community.Martha Stewart recently visited the Native American Festival and Basketmakers Market that we help to put on every year!
The Abbe Museum tells visitors about the culture and history of the native American peoples of Maine.
So it made sense to launch “Greening the Abbe,” a project designed to make the small museum – just a few minutes drive from Acadia National Park along Maine’s rugged and beautiful coastline – as environmentally conscious and energy efficient as possible.
“We have this place for learning, and it just made sense to be doing it responsibly all the way through,” says Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, the president and chief executive officer of the Abbe Museum. “We recognized that something had to be done.”.
The Abbe Museum welcomes Jennifer Pictou, Micmac, as the new Curator of Education. Ms. Pictou has a wealth of experience working in the museum field in general and the museum education field in particular. Over the past ten years, she worked as the Museum Educator for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Mashantucket, CT, as the Education Programs Supervisor at the Mystic Seaport Museum and, most recently, as the Executive Director at the Bangor Museum and History Center. Ms. Pictou currently serves as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, a position she will continue to hold as she starts work at the Abbe. Ms. Pictou holds a Bachelors in Fine Art from the University of Maine, a Bachelors of Art in Anthropology from the University of Southern Maine and a Masters in American and New England Studies, also from the University of Southern Maine.
Ms. Pictou stepped into the role of Museum Educator at the Abbe on January 13. “The Abbe is a leading educational voice about the Wabanaki in Maine and I am pleased to be welcomed into the organization,” says Ms. Pictou. “As both a museum professional and a member of the Arookstook Band of Micmacs, I look forward to expanding cultural connections for museum visitors as well as helping integrate more Native voices in public dialogue. In addition to bringing the energy and vibrancy of Maine’s Natives to visitors from around the globe, I am eager to engage museum learners in multi-sensory experiences that will highlight our deep connections to the land, culture, and people.”
Jennifer Pictou succeeds Raney Bench, who left the Abbe in early December to become the executive director of the Seal Cove Auto Museum.
