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Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America with Speaker Paula Peters
Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America
Paula Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag), Co-founder of SmokeSygnals
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Hybrid In-Person and Zoom Event
In Person Location: Little Compton Community Center
Paula Peters will discuss the exhibit, Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America. The centerpiece of the exhibit is a magnificent new wampum belt, through which Wampanoag artists of today share their story and set out their creative aspirations for the future. The exhibit, which has been on tour in the United Kingdom and throughout the Northeast, tells the story of Wampanoag Native America. The Wampanoag people have inhabited the northeastern United States for over 12,000 years. Wampanoags greeted the passengers of the Mayflower in 1620 and helped them survive, yet for almost 400 years, the story of the impact of that event and its aftermath on the Wampanoag Nation has been widely marginalized in the telling of American history. This new exhibit explores that largely-untold story, using images, ideas, and wampum by contemporary Wampanoag artists and educators, and examines and celebrates the art, culture, and resilience of the Wampanoag Nation. The centerpiece of the exhibit is a magnificent new wampum belt, through which Wampanoag artists of today share their story and set out their creative aspirations for the future.
Paula Peters, founder of SmokeSygnals, a Native production company, is a politically, socially, and culturally active member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. As an independent scholar and writer of Native, and particularly Wampanoag history, she is a producer of the traveling exhibit “Our” Story: 400 Years of Wampanoag History and is recently engaged in the Wampum Belt Project in search of the lost treasures of Metacom, including an effort to restore the art and tradition of wampum making among her people. She is the executive producer of the 2016 documentary film Mashpee Nine and author of the companion book. She lives with her extended family in Mashpee and travels internationally to speak and educate on the true Wampanoag story.
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