A new exhibit highlighting Wampanoag art opens at the Cotuit Center for the Arts this Saturday.
Mashpee Wampanoag Paula Peters co-curated the exhibit, which features more than 20 Wampanoag artists from across the region.
CAI's Gilda Geist visited with Paula to get a preview of the exhibit, which is called “All Our Relations: Art of the Wampanoag Nation.”
Gilda Geist So Paula, just from the press release, it's clear that a lot of planning went into putting together this exhibit. So, can you tell me the story of how All Our Relations came to be?
Paula Peters Sure. Well, first of all, we're incredibly grateful to Cotuit Center for the Arts because they have invited us to do this show, and there are so many Wampanoag artists that are incredibly talented in different genres, different age groups, and it was just a lot of fun to bring these people together and reaching out to them for participation in the show. At first, we were worried that we would have trouble getting people to participate. But we have over 20 different artists and they're all very enthusiastic and I'm just really excited about the collection of work that's going to be on display. It's going to be pretty amazing.
GG Can you tell me a little bit about the name of this exhibit, All Our Relations: Art of the Wampanoag Nation. Why was that the name that was chosen?
PP You know, "all our relations" is something that traditionally, culturally, we refer to very often when we're making a prayer or when we are acknowledging something important going on. We'd like to recognize all our relations, and that doesn't just mean your cousins and your aunties down the street. That's like, all your relations for generations and what they've contributed to what we are doing here today. So, for this exhibit especially, I think every one of the artists will tell you that they're inspired by their heritage and their culture and all of those relations that went on generations before us who thrived and have actually made it possible for us to thrive. So, we honor them in everything that we do.
GG This is a very multimedia exhibit, but the centerpiece is really the visual art. You have some of those art pieces here with you today, so can we take a look at them and you can describe them to our listeners?
PP Yeah, I'd love to show you. One of the first pieces I'm going to show you is this beautiful piece of pottery that has been created by Jennifer Staples. She is a citizen of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe. And it's small and it fits in the palm of my hand, but when you look at it you can see all of the colors of the Gay Head Cliffs in here. You can see the gray, the whitish color, the reddish color that is so vibrant in the Gay Head Cliffs, the yellowish color. And this is a tradition that was passed down to her through generations and generations of Aquinnah Wampanoag artisans. Another piece that we're going to have in the show is the Wampanoag wampum belt. This was a piece that was created back in 2020. It had more than 100 Wampanoag people work on it and contribute their thoughts and ideas for what the design would be, to making the beads, to actually weaving the beads and putting it together. So, this is truly a piece that represents our community. It's probably one of the largest contemporary pieces of wampum art that exists anywhere.
GG What else can people expect from this exhibit?
PP I think that people will hopefully have an experience where they will begin to see our community through a different lens because so often we're thought of as, oh, that's that tribe that met the pilgrims. And for some people it's like, we're not even around anymore. We have to remind them that we're still here. This exhibit does some of that for sure. You know, it's like, yeah, these people are still here. These people are talented and proud and they're doing great work. And I hope that that's what they come away with. And just a sense of how much our traditions and our culture still mean to us. You'll notice when you see the show that every artist, we ask them to answer the same question. We ask them to say how their Wampanoag heritage informs their art. So, there'll be a little bit of a statement there along with each artist's bio.
All Our Relations: Art of the Wampanoag Nation officially opens Saturday, May 31 at the Cotuit Center for the Arts and runs through June 29. Admission is free.
