The Kingfisher Singers represent the Aquinnah Wampanoag, Mashpee Wampanoag and Narragansett Nations. They will perform Eastern Woodlands Music, with rattles, in traditional regalia, and talk about cultural celebrations in which this music figures prominently. This is music they learned from their cousin traditional dancer and speaker Nanepashemut about 25 years ago. The Kingfisher Theater was established in 2011. Kingfisher provides both entertainment and educational programs with performers from several Northeastern Native Nations. Some performances include traditional Northeastern Native songs and dances complemented with clothing appropriate to the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, as well as contemporary Native clothing. Performances include culturally and historically educational explanations by the performers that will be adjusted to the age and interests of the audience. Performers use water drums, rattles, hand drums and other traditional instruments.
Elizabeth James-Perry is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head -Aquinnah, located by the richly colored clay cliffs of Martha’s Vineyard/Noepe. As a member of a Nation that has lived on and harvested the sea since ancient times, Elizabeth's is a perspective that combines coastal Algonquian culture, traditional beliefs and science in her ways of relating to the North Atlantic. Much of Elizabeth's work focuses on early Northeastern Woodlands Native culture, including ancient wampum shell carving and reviving natural dye techniques to create a traditional palette for her finger woven sashes, bags and baskets. She has worked to create museum-quality textile arts in milkweed and cedar bast, intricately painted deerskin and to capture the classic layered drape of Native linen trade cloth outfits. Elizabeth will present wampum jewelry, painted bags, sashes, and beadwork for sale.
Author/Illustrator Christine Almstrom will be selling copies of her recently released children’s book “Grandfather Thunder & The Night Horses,” at the 5th Annual Pocumtuck Homelands Festival." The book is a bilingual English/Lakota creation story based on the legend of the Thunder Horses. Almstrom worked closely with the Thunder Valley Lakota Language Initiative on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and through permission of the council elders. As a direct result of “Grandfather,” she has been asked to illustrate a series of traditional oral Lakota stories to preserve the language and culture of the Lakota Nation. There will be two versions of the next books, one completely in the Lakota language, the other bilingual. She is currently working on illustrations for an Iroquois legend with author Mary Morton Cowan.
BRING YOUR ARTIFACTS!
David Naumec, a member of the Mashantucket-Pequot Museum and Research Center archaeological team will be returning to the Pocumtuck Homelands Festival this year. David is part of the team currently studying the Wissatinnewag-Peskeompskut area as part of a grant provided by the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program. He welcomes people to bring 17th century artifacts they wish to have analyzed to his table.
We are very, very excited about the wide range of programming offered that day and honored by the excellence of the presenters offering them to you. This once-a- year event is free, accessible, and open and of interest to people of all ages and backgrounds. Many thanks to our generous supporters.
