NEW GLOUCESTER — Emerging and known artists representing the Penobscot, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Maliseet tribes of Maine will gather at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village on Saturday, Aug. 27.
The occasion? The third annual Maine Native American Summer Market and Demonstration, which has “Generations of Traditions” as its theme.
About 20 Maine Indian artists will bring their hand-woven ash splint and sweet-grass basketry, etched birch bark vessels, stone sculptures, woodcarvings, jewelry, and flute making and storytelling skills to the free daylong event.
At last year’s gathering David Sanipass, a Micmac storyteller and flute maker, made note of the generations of traditions passed on by the Wabanaki (People of the Dawn) and the Shakers.
“We are here today because of traditions — generations of traditions. Many of the traditions are in the form of baskets, birch bark vessels, carvings, jewelry and other beautiful creations made by generations of our ancestors,” said Sanipass, a descendent of a family of traditional basket makers.
“Here alone you can see grandparents and grandchildren, mentors and apprentices — all expressing traditions,” he said. There is also another tradition very present here. … the tradition of gathering together.”
“The Wabanaki and the Shakers started to gather a long time ago and shared ideas about basket making and herbal medicine. Later on in time, they gathered again to sell their goods to tourists at the grand hotels throughout the state of Maine,” said Sanipass. They frequented Old Orchard Beach, Bar Harbor, Kennebunkport, the Moosehead Lake region and Poland Spring.
Caron Shay, a Penobscot basket maker, was an infant when her parents, Madeleine and Lawrence Shay, sold items side by side with Shakers at the summer basket camp at Poland Spring. Passing on traditional skills, she mentored her children and grandchildren through her artistry.
“We have people as artists attending this event who have generational linkage to the Shaker traditions,” said Michael Graham, Sabbathday Lake Shaker Museum curator.
The Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance is an 18-year-old nonprofit dedicated to preserving the ancient tradition of brown ash and sweet-grass basketry. In 1993, MIBA counted about 55 basket makers, with an average age of 63, in the five Maine tribes. Today, 200 basket makers, with an average age of 40, are members of the alliance, said Theresa Secord, MIBA executive director.
Secord, a basket maker and member of the Penobscot Nation, is a descendent of Philomene Nelson, a prolific basket maker whose works can be seen at the Abby Museum in Bar Harbor.
Secord, who uses her grandmother’s forms, earned a Traditional Artist Award from the Maine Arts Commission in 2011, and has been honored by the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, for her work to help Maine tribes continue traditional skills.
The MIBA, in collaboration with the Hudson Museum in Orono, received a grant from the National Museum of the American Indian for the exhibit, “Transcending Traditions: The Next Generation and Maine Indian Basketry,” slated to open on Sept. 24 at the Hudson Museum.
“How proud the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance is of the next generation of basket makers for accepting the ways and responsibilities of continuing Indian culture through leadership, art and teaching,” Secord said. “The exhibition traces the proud journey of a new generation of Maine artisans who have helped save a tradition by putting their own signature on this ancestral, uniquely Wabanaki cultural art.”
Go and do
WHAT: Maine Native American Summer Market and Demonstration
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27
WHERE: Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, Route 26, New Gloucester
ADMISSION: Free
MORE INFO: 926-4597, www.shaker.lib.me.us
Participating artists
Birch bark artist: Barry Dana
Stone sculptor: Tim Shay
Flute maker and storyteller: David Sanipass
Woodcarver: Richard Love
Basket makers: Molly Neptune Parker, George Neptune, Butch Jacobs, Fred Tomah, Kim Bryant, Pam Cunningham, Paula Thorne, Caron Shay, Richard Silliboy, Gal Frey, Stuart Tomah, Jeremy Frey and Ganessa Bryant
Basket and jewelry maker: Janice Francis, Wilma Mariano-Shay
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- Maliseet basket maker Fred Tomah of Houlton is renowned for his cat’s head styles and dazzling patterns. This is a basket lid in the making.
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