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MFA Free on Monday, October 10

Indigenous People’s Day

By: - Sep 28, 2022

All events and activities—taking place from 10 am to 5 pm—are free:

  • 10 am–3 pm | Local Partners and Vendors | Visitors can drop by to meet some of the local partners who helped organize the MFA's Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration and purchase one-of-a-kind works of art made by Indigenous artists. Featuring: Wampanoag Trading Post and Gallery, a Mashpee Wampanoag–owned gallery and store located in Mashpee, Massachusetts that sells handmade jewelry, art, and goods from Native American makers; and the Tomaquag Museum of the Narragansett Indian Tribe, the only Native American Museum in Rhode Island, with a gift shop featuring artwork from Indigenous artists from the Northeast and beyond. 
     
  • 10 am–5 pm | What Do You See When You Look at Appeal to the Great Spirit? Native Students Respond | For more than 100 years, Cyrus Dallin’s Appeal to the Great Spirit (1909), a representation of a Native man by a white artist, has stood on the MFA's Huntington Avenue Lawn. For Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Indigenous students from Massachusetts colleges and universities have responded to Dallin’s sculpture in the form of signs surrounding the sculpture that consider issues from artistic intentions to histories of stereotype.
     
  • 11 am | Remarks and Land Acknowledgement | Featuring Matthew Teitelbaum, Ann and Graham Gund Director, and Marina Tyquiengco, Ellyn McColgan Assistant Curator of Native American Art.
     
  • 11:15 am–4 pm | Drop-In Art Making | Corn husk is used by tribal artists to make baskets, mats, braided rugs and even braided shoes and sandals. Families can drop by the Druker Family Pavilion to learn how to create their own corn husk weaving work of art, in an activity created in collaboration with artist Elizabeth James-Perry.
     
  • 11:15 am and 1 pm | Danza Orgánica: Liminal Space | This new performance work in development explores temporal and physical liminal spaces as the crucial spots where transformation takes place. Mar Parrilla’s exploration of liminality centers her experience as the daughter of aging parents living in Borikén (Puerto Rico). 
     
  • 12 pm and 3 pm | Art-Making Demo | Featuring acclaimed basket weaver Jeremy Frey (Passamaquoddy), demonstrates ash fancy basket making, a traditional form of Wabanaki weaving, and discuss his influences and background. 
     
  • 1 pm | Spotlight Talk: Belonging and Stories | Akwomat Educational Initiative director of programming and outreach endawnis Spears (Diné/Ojibwe/Chickasaw/Choctaw) highlights belongings and stories in the Native North American Art Gallery.
     
  • 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm | Storybook Reading: "Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving" | Author Danielle Greendeer (Mashpee Wampanoag Nation) reads her Wampanoag retelling of Thanksgiving. Greendeer is the owner of the Wampanoag Gallery and Trading Post and works on tribal governance, cultural perpetuation and food sovereignty.
     
  • 2 pm | Responding to Revolution: Native Artist Interventions | Marina Tyquiengco (CHamoru), the MFA's inaugural Ellyn McColgan Assistant Curator of Native American Art, presents artworks by Native American artists that challenge traditional narratives and offer their own perspectives on the history of the American Revolution.

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