Franklin Park is expected to become home, in the coming years, to a new monument that honors the Wampanoag people.
The monument, known as White Pine Gathering Place, will become the first permanent tribute in Boston that honors an Indigenous community.
"I think this monument really is a step toward healing," said Steven Peters, a citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. "It's a step towards finally feeling as though we have a platform as Native Americans to be able to develop a space and share a story that we feel as though truly reflects who we are."
The monument is part of the city's "Un-monument | Re-monument | De-monument: Transforming Boston" initiative, a program that works with local artists to reimagine who is memorialized and why.
At the center of the monument will be the story of Moshup, a prominent figure in Wampanoag mythology, which will be inscribed on a pot. Moshup, a giant, created the separation between Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard by dragging his foot along the coastline, according to the legend.
The pot will be surrounded by benches and Corten steel poles, symbolizing red cedar and circled by white pine trees, which represent life for the Wampanoag tribe.
The monument was designed by the organization SmokeSygnals, which works to tell the untold stories of Indigenous history through exhibits and art installations.
Peters, who is also the creative director of SmokeSygnals, said he worked with three Wampanoag tribes to help him design the monument. He added that the Wampanoag people view the monument as a "functional space that was connected to the land."
"That's what this monument is. It has four directions … so you're able to enter from north, east, south and west. It has trees that are planted along the exterior that are bringing nutrients back to that soil," he explained. "Also, it brings a contemporary art feel to it, which is something that was important for the tribal communities, showing that our art and our culture are continuing to evolve in a contemporary world, as well."
Erin Genia, Boston's first Indigenous Public Art and Cultural Spaces consultant, said she's been "heavily advocating" for this monument because there's a lack of Indigenous representation in the city's art landscape.
"... There's many monuments and memorials and public art that not only invisibilize Native American and Indigenous people, but they also glorify the story of colonialism, which has been very hurtful for Indigenous communities," said Genia, who is also a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe in the Dakotas. "It's really important that we begin to tell those stories from an Indigenous perspective."
Peters said the purpose of the monument is to create a place where people can come, sit and reflect.
"How they do that is up to them, but we've created the space for them to be comfortable and use it the way that they feel is best," he said. "We're working with, not only Wampanoag tribes, but other Indigenous tribes from around Boston to talk about how this space is also used for ceremonial purposes — that's something that the tribes will use it for."
SmokeSygnals will present the final design to the public at Franklin Park later this month. But the group still needs to raise roughly $2 million to build the monument and get multiple approvals from the city.
"We're going to work with the city to see if we can secure the funding and make this a reality," Peters said. "Once the funding is in, we're at about a 24-month fabrication and installation schedule."
Genia said she hopes that this monument can open the door to more Indigenous monuments and public art in the city.
"I think that to have a monument in public space where the public can begin to learn about Wampanoag people … and that we need to come to terms with in order to move forward in a good way — I think that this monument is an awesome step toward that," she said.
Peters said developing more spaces like this can also bring healing back to Indigenous communities.
"The idea of having a place where people get to come together, where intertribal relations can happen, where intercommunity relations can happen, is a positive thing for everybody," he said.
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