Wampanoagartisans from all over New England gathered Saturday at the 17th annual Native Artisan Market and Festival.
Tables displayed jewelry made with wampum shells carved into hearts, stars and the shape of the Island. Pots and vases rippled with red and gray clay from the Aquinnah cliffs, and dream catchers rattled with the piercing crescendos of the music and drums of the Black Brook Singers.
The market was hosted by the Aquinnah Cultural Center. NaDaizja Bolling, director for the center, said it’s one of her favorite events of the year because it brings business to Wampanoag artists and artisans while also providing a space for the artists to share their culture with the general public.
“It’s an opportunity for them to show the work that they’re proud of,” Ms. Bolling said. “A lot of it is traditional and has been passed down through generational knowledge.”
Kerri Helme, a Mashpee Wampanoag artist, traveled from Virginia to attend the festival. She removed corn husks from a bowl of water and carefully folded and braided them into dolls. Wide-eyed children copied her movements while making dolls of their own.
“It’s like a Barbie,” Ms. Helme said while teaching two young girls.
Many Wampanoag cultural arts were destroyed when the colonists landed and violently oppressed the native people, but Ms. Helme said the art of making corn husk dolls wasn’t lost. She said it was important to the Wampanoag people that children be able to play and have toys.
“We leave them faceless so our children can project their own image onto their doll,” Ms. Helme said.
Stephanie Devine, a Wampanoag artist who lives in Oak Bluffs, sat behind a table decorated with orchids, feathers, seashells and driftwood.
Burning sage enveloped her table.
Ms. Devine said she has been collecting turkey feathers for a year in order to make her son’s regalia. She binds them together in colorful fans that Wampanoag people will use to take in the smoke while smudging, a process of burning sacred plants.
“They look so spectacular and beautiful,” Ms. Devine said. “[Smudging] draws out bad energy. The natives are really big into that. You would light your sage, take it and fan it around everybody.”
Deborah Spears Moorehead, a Seaconke Pokanoket Wampanoag artist and author, displayed colorful prints of her paintings. She said she paints everything she sees but focuses on capturing the history of Eastern Woodland tribes.
In the center of her table was a large print of a painting she titled Good Energy. It depicts a Wampanoag two-spirit, a person who has both a masculine and feminine spirits in their body.
“Everybody who comes to my table stops and stands in front of it,” Ms. Moorehead said. “It draws people.”
Children, their faces caked in sandy sunscreen, clung to their parents’ legs while watching a live demonstration of flint-knapping. Adahy Gonsalves, a Wampanoag Aquinnah tribal member, described the process as carving arrowheads out of rock with deer antlers.
Many also gathered to watch Marlene Lopez, the clan mother for the Rabbit Clan for the Mashpee Wampanoag, weave colorful, wool yarn into belts that are worn with traditional attire during dances.
“I’ve been doing this about 30 years now,” Ms. Lopez said. “A lot of people still do finger weaving but there’s not a lot of us out there.”
She said native people were asked to make the belts after the colonists came to Canada. At the time, there were no zippers to hold jackets closed, so they would use belts to bind their thick coats.
“They would wrap them around several times and in between the layers they would keep their personal belongings,” Ms. Lopez said.
She said teaching the next generation is essential to keep the Wampanoag tradition alive.
“It brings that pride back in to them that they know their ancestors did this too,” Ms. Lopez said.
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