Culture - Vermont Abenaki Artists Association

Abenaki Women Research Project

November 25, 2024October 17, 2024 by Vera Sheehan

Welcome to the official blog for ‘Alnôbakskwak: Abenaki Women Leading the Way.’ We’re excited to have you with us as we uncover, preserve, and share some vital stories of Abenaki women. Whether you’re here for history, inspiration, or to follow our progress, we’re glad you’ve joined us!

What happens to a community when its stories are no longer passed down? And what if those stories held the key to reclaiming lost traditions and leadership?

Long before colonization reshaped Abenaki society, women were healers, and storytellers who served their community in various capacities as culture bearers and leaders. Their knowledge ensured the survival of their communities. Yet somehow that changed when colonial cultures placed a higher value on men than women and forced New England Indians to follow French and English gender roles where women had little power and autonomy.

How do we rediscover and honor these roles today?

Local Native American cultural traditions suggest possibilities for change and reclaiming her lost story. Oral tradition and storytelling are traditional ways to pass information from one generation to the next.

Why does this project matter?

At a time when many Indigenous communities around the world are reclaiming traditions and leadership roles, Abenaki women’s stories offer insight into both the challenges of the past and possibilities for the future.

Stories have power—and they risk being lost if we don’t collect them now. The stories we are gathering will inform an upcoming exhibit that isn’t just a reflection of the past—it’s a call to action for the future of Abenaki culture.

What inspired this exhibit?

In 2017, VAAA curated an exhibit, called “Alnobak: Wearing Our Heritage.” The exhibit opened at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, VT, and traveled to museums in three New England states. As part of the interpretive programming, we hosted library discussions around the State of Vermont. A panel discussion about the roles of women inspired our new exhibition about the respected position of Abenaki women in traditional culture.

What can I expect from this blog?

This blog will take you behind the scenes of our journey as we build a new exhibition that explores the vital, yet often overlooked, roles of Abenaki women as culture bearers, leaders, and mothers. You’ll notice our posts reflect the voices of everyone involved—sometimes reflective, other times informative, and always filled with passion for sharing Abenaki culture.

In the coming weeks, we will share updates on our research, insights/snippets from our first interviews, highlights on artifacts that inspired us, and reflections from the people shaping this project. You’ll also get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes as we develop the exhibit.

Stay with us as we explore what it means to reclaim heritage and leadership in the modern world.

When and where will the exhibition be on view?

This will be the featured Abenaki culture exhibit in the Stone Schoolhouse at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, VT, opening in 2026.

Get Involved

If this story speaks to you, share it with your community. The more people who engage with these narratives, the more powerful they become. Follow VAAA on Facebook and email us to sign up to our mailing list (please mention the email list in the subject) for updates and the announcement of our opening event in 2026.

Partners and Supporters

We are grateful to our longtime partners, the Vermont Folklife Center and Lake Champlain Maritime Museum whose expertise has helped to sustain Abenaki cultural preservation activities for decades, and help make our work possible.

The Abenaki Storytelling Project, developed by the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association, Abenaki Arts and Education Center, and Waolôwzi Health and Wellness Program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Department of Health.

The Vermont Department of Health

Contact Us

Reach out through our contact page if you have questions or stories to share!

Nebizun: Water is Life

October 31, 2024July 10, 2024 by Administrator

Written by Kelly Holt. First published in Art New England Magazine. June 1, 2023.

Nebizun: Water is Life, is a “living, breathing exhibition,” curated by Vera Longtoe Sheehan, founder of the Abenaki Art Association. The exhibition brings together artists from four recognized tribes from the Champlain Valley and the Connecticut River Valley for its fourth stop on a two-year tour. Nebizun (Abenaki for medicine, whose root nebi means water) metamorphosizes in each curatorial iteration. A vital part of Abenaki art and culture is stewardship of the land, N’Dakinna (our homeland). Explains Sheehan, “The Abenaki people know how essential water is to foodways, medicine, and everyday activities that may be taken for granted.”

Many works are influenced by activist elders. Nebizun is inspired by Grandmother Doreen Bernard’s ‘water walk’ from Nova Scotia to Maine to pray for an abundance of water. Another inspiration is the Standing Rock crisis and art activism by Grandmother Willi Nolan: “Our waters are our highways.” Only Native American people were at Standing Rock—the word was spread via social media. No Pipelines, a drawing by artist JES, was created to share through those channels. Francine Poitras Jones’ Water is Life painting is a direct expression of this protest, “…it was my reality…the painting flowed from me, much like the water that sustains life.”

The exhibition takes visitors through several watershed topics while mirroring Abenaki making and way of life. Traversing a long space, each stop works like a tributary. The exhibition is peppered with water facts that will make you pause the next time you make a cup of coffee, and more. Another tributary begins with images of creation and Standing Rock, then flows into the importance of wetlands as protectors highlighting duck-decoys made from cattails, netmaking, fishing implements and birch, a vital material in canoe making and creating “biting patterns” in pieces of art. At one end of the space is an arresting photo of ancestral rock carvings—petroglyphs of the faces in Bellows Falls, VT. The installation continues with beading and pottery, and concludes with detailed maps, calls to activism, and digital paintings Across the River by Hawk Schulmeisters that evoke pollution in water.

Speaker Series

July 12, 2024July 9, 2024 by Administrator

Each year, the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association partners with the Abenaki Arts & Education Center to present a speaker series. Native American and Non-Native subject matter experts from different disciplines come together to discuss important topics.

Interviews with Abenaki Artists (2021)
Two-Eyed Seeing (2023)
Bridging Perspectives: Indigenous Narratives, Identity, and Healing (2024)

Two-Eyed Seeing Speaker Series (2023)

July 9, 2024 by Administrator

Two-eyed Seeing Speaker Series poster with information about the presentations.

The term “Two-Eyed seeing,” coined by Mi’kmaw Nation Elder Albert Marshall, describes the experience of seeing the strength of Indigenous knowledge with one eye and the strength of Western knowledge with the other. Series speakers will share perspectives on community relationships to regional waterways, including archaeology, ecology, advocacy, Western and Indigenous science, and more.

Two-Eyed Seeing Speaking Series presents “A Deep Presence & A More Inclusive History“

NH Rep. Sherry Gould (Nulhegan Abenaki), a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, and Dr. Robert Goodby of Monadnock Archaeological Consulting are long-time friends and collaborators. As charter members of the New Hampshire Commission on Native American Affairs, Sherry served as Chair and Bob was the representative appointed by the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources.

Two-Eyed Seeing Speaker Series presents “Kwanitekw (Connecticut River) : Sustainer of Life“

In honor of World Water Day, the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association (VAAA) was pleased to present Kwanitekw (Connecticut River): The Sustainer of Life. On March 22 at 7 pm, a panel of Indigenous citizens and environmental scientists met to share multiple perspectives on living in relationship with the Connecticut River watershed.

The Two-Eyed Seeing speaker series was supported in part by the Vermont Humanities, Vermont Arts Council, and program partners Abenaki Arts and Education Center, Abenaki Trails Project, Institute for American Indian Studies, Connecticut River Conservancy, Monadnock Archeology Consultants, and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Fulcrum Press.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed do not necessarily represent those
of the presenters and do not reflect those of the partner organizations or supporters.

Abenaki Heritage Weekend June 29-30 at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum Connects Heritage, Health, and Wellness

July 9, 2024June 23, 2024 by Administrator

On June 29-30 citizens of the American Abenaki community will gather at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, Vermont to celebrate their history and heritage, and all are welcome! Organized by the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association, this free, family-friendly event is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

Throughout the weekend there will be activities for all ages. Children and adults alike should not miss storytelling and book-signing by celebrated Abenaki author, musician and historian Joseph Bruchac on Saturday. All weekend, bring a picnic lunch. Enjoy singing and drumming by the Nulhegan Drum. A table hosted by the Abenaki Toddler Group welcomes families to stop by for storytelling, drumming, and free children’s books. Visitors can also participate in animal-tracking games and visit the “make and take” table.

Inspired by our three-year Storytelling Project, the VAAA’s Waolowzi Health and Wellness committee encourages the healing that is possible through community projects connecting with cultural heritage, arts, and education. VAAA has partnered with Abenaki Health and Heritage Inc. and Haven Heritage Productions to publish Always Coming Home, a graphic novel about an Abenaki family in the 1880s.

A new special exhibit, Deep Roots, Strong Branches, will open during Heritage Weekend in the Schoolhouse Gallery, and will be on view all season. “Abenaki culture is a complex network of people, places, relationships and ceremony that links the people with the living land,” says curator Vera Sheehan. “For this exhibit we have selected artwork and stories by contemporary American Abenaki artists that illustrate the resilience of the region’s Indigenous people.”

One of the highlights is the Native Arts Marketplace of the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association, where visitors can talk to artists, watch craft demonstrations, and purchase outstanding beadwork, paintings, jewelry, wampum, woodwork, leatherwork, drums, and other items. “The variety and quality of the work created by our Abenaki artists is outstanding,” said Vera Sheehan, Executive Director of the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association. If you are looking to purchase a special gift or something new for your collection, be sure to visit the Native Arts Marketplace.”

VAAA’s Waolowzi Health and Wellness committee has partnered with the Open Door Clinic and Vermont Department of Health to host a pop-up clinic on site all weekend offering check-ups, referrals, and advice.

The Abenaki Heritage Weekend is organized in partnership with the Abenaki Arts & Education Center. Special thanks to Lake Champlain Maritime Museum for hosting this annual celebration since 2007, and the Vermont Department of Health for their support.

For more information on Abenaki Heritage Weekend, visit: AbenakiArt.org/abenaki-heritage-weekend.

June 29-30 – Abenaki Heritage Weekend. At Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, VT

Sen. Bernie Sanders Exhibits Abenaki Art in Office

February 18, 2024July 27, 2019 by Administrator

For more information Contact: Vera Longtoe Sheehan, [email protected]

Image Courtesy of Diane Stevens Photography.

July 26, 2019

Pocumtuck Homelands Festival celebrates Native American culture in Western Mass. (photos)

February 18, 2024August 10, 2017 by Administrator

-841b683e86ab9eac By Steve Smith, Special to The Republican

August 5, 2017 at 10:00 PM

TURNERS FALLS – The Pocumtuck Homelands Festival celebrated Native American culture with live music, primitive skills demonstrations, storytelling and more Saturday at Unity Park on the historic banks of the Connecticut River.

The festival featured vendors of Native American arts and crafts, and all were eager to share knowledge of their history and culture. Vera Longtoe Sheehan follows in the tradition of her ancestors, making twined baskets and bags. But it in her family, it is known as knotting. One basket of knotted milkweed took her an especially long time. “I stopped counting after 120 hours.”

The festival has attracted as many as 2,000 people in recent years, but occasional rain and the threat of thunderstorms may have discouraged some this year. “Everything is wet,” said Jack Kuehl, who makes canoes and drums. “The drums are wet and they won’t play; but everything will dry.”

Pocumtuck Homelands Festival

February 18, 2024July 18, 2017 by Administrator

The 4th Annual Pocumtuck Homelands Festival, a celebration of Native American Art, Music, and Culture, takes place on Saturday, August 5 from 10am to 7pm at the Unity Park Waterfront in Turners Falls, MA. The event features live traditional, original and fusion music, Native American crafts, story telling ,drumming, games and activities for kids, primitive skills demonstrations, and an impressive selection of books.

The Mashantucket-Pequot archaeology team will be on site to analyze early contact period artifacts brought to the festival. Festival food will be available, including Native American fare. The Pocumtuck Homelands Festival is free, family friendly, educational, accessible and fun for all ages!
This event is sponsored by The Nolumbeka Project, with support by Turners Falls RuverCulture.

Read the full text and schedule on Facebook.

The Past Meets the Present at Abenaki Heritage Weekend

March 6, 2021June 9, 2017 by Administrator

VERGENNES, VT., JUNE 9, 2017