Wampanoag People
Wampanoag Scholar, Paula Peters, her team at SmokeSygnals and the Wampanoag Advisory Committee worked with the Mayflower 400 team in Southampton for two years to ensure the Wampanoag people were represented within the programme. Funding secured from the National Lottery Heritage Fund has allowed us to work together on numerous projects.
Wampanoag Singers and Dancers
Wampanoag dancers and musicians have recorded themselves performing traditional Native American dances. They’ve taken to the camera to explain more about their culture and what performing means to them. This is a unique opportunity for Wampanoag artists to share their culture with UK audiences and increase understanding across borders. A Passport to Wampanoag Culture.
Education Resources
Throughout 2020, Paula Peters worked with our education providers, Oasis Academy (Mayfield), to develop new education resources for schools. The education resources, released in September 2020, focus on telling the Mayflower story from both the perspective of the European settlers and the Native Americans. This is the first time Wampanoag people have co-curated education materials for UK schools. The project is linked to School of Sanctuary. Read more about our education resources.
Native American Heritage Month
In November 2020, we took part in Native American Heritage Month. We produced various videos and documents exploring Native American Heritage and Southampton’s connection to Native American Communities. As part of this, in partnership with Southampton Film Week, Paula Peters’ documentary ‘Mashpee Nine’ was screened. The film recounts details of a police raid, arrest and court trial of nine Wampanoag tribal members who were drumming on the Mashpee Pond campsite July 29, 1976 in Mashpee, Massachusetts. After the screening, Stephen Peters took part in an informative Q&A.
Find out more about Native American Heritage Month
Open Exhibition
Robert Peters, a Mashpee Wampanoag artist, writer and poet was invited to judge the Mayflower 400 themed Open Exhibition by Southampton City Art Gallery. Robert was able to give his unique artistic opinions on over 450 works submitted to the exhibition. You can see the winning entries to the exhibition here: ’In Search of a New World’ – Open Exhibition 2020
Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America
Displayed at SeaCity Museum between August and November 2020; Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America is a touring exhibition presented by The Box, Plymouth in partnership with SmokeSygnals, Massachusetts, and supported by Arts Council England as part of the Mayflower 400 programme. This was the first time a newly-crafted wampum belt created by the Wampanoag people of the Mashpee and Aquinnah nations was displayed in the UK. Wampum belts are stories of communities and culture, and this unique display featured work and materials from Native American artists and items on loan from Saffron Walden Museum. Read more about Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America.
All images courtesy of SmokeSygnals
Video Content
Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we have worked with our Wampanoag partners to produce numerous educational videos. Links to the videos can be seen below.
Wampanoag Young People – In this video, young people explore what it is like to be Wampanoag in 2020. Hear about their favourite hobbies and lessons in school as well as traditional tribal activities they take part in. Produced as part of Native American Heritage Month.
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Wampanoag Singers and Dancers – “As a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, song and dance are such important parts of our culture and traditions. Too often we are saturated in the contemporary world around us.”
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Wampanoag Thanksgiving – To follow the meaning of Thanksgiving is to be thankful, to be respectful, to be caring to other people, to be giving. Not just to you and your own, not just to you and your family, but to strangers, to homeless people, to people who have nothing, people who are just trying to survive. That’s what the indigenous people did for the people who came across the seas on the ships.”
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Letter to the Mayflower – A contemporary Wampanoag woman, Talia Landry, on behalf of the Wampanoag tribespeople, performs a reading of a ‘letter to the Mayflower’.
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Prayer for Patuxet – a filmed prayer from Steven Peters, citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, reflecting on what his ancestors went through 400 years ago in their village of Patuxet. Produced alongside the installations of a new plaque on the Mayflower Memorial remembering the original inhabitants of Patuxet.
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In Discussion with Paula Peters – at the opening of the Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America exhibition, Paula Peters, Cllr Kaur and Cllr Blatchford (The Mayor of Southampton) discuss the Wampanoag matriarchal society and Native traditions.
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Wampanoag Thanksgiving downloadable PDF.
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