Tuesday 25th April 2023 at 2.45pm

Wampanoag Takeover: Colonisation and Its Impact with Hartman Deetz

The Drum

Hartman Deetz is a Mashpee Wampanoag who has been active in environmental and cultural stewardship for over 20 years. This stewardship is based on his spiritual foundation in his Native traditions that value the earth as a living being. Deetz is also returning to his work with the Wampanoag Language Reclamation Program as a student and teacher. Deetz is a traditional artist as well as singer and dancer, having shown his art in galleries from coast to coast across the US. Deetz is currently engaged with advocacy work for the Charles River Watershed Association advocating for the health and restoration of the Charles River as well as other campaigns around native rights to access waterways and the protection and restoration of Mashpee water quality and water quality in general.

Tuesday 25th April 2023 at 7.45pm

Wampanoag Takeover: Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers

The Drum

This is an evening of Eastern Social Song and Dance (which often requires participation!) It represents the Wampanoag communities of Aquinnah, Mashpee and Herring Pond.

Join the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers as they perform music, dance, tell stories. Throughout the performance, the audience is encouraged to join the performers in song and dance to experience the spirit of Wampanoag history, culture, and traditions first-hand.

Wednesday 26th April 2023 at 2.45pm

Wampanoag Takeover: Mashpee Nine Film screening and Q&A with Paula Peters

The Drum

Film Showing and Q&A with Paula Peters (author of Mashpee Nine).

On the night of 29th July 1976, a group of nine young Wampanoag men were confronted, brutally beaten and arrested by 30 police officers dressed in riot gear. These men were not out to cause trouble; they were not seeking to offend anyone. They were simply celebrating their cultural heritage and history in a way that newcomers to the town of Mashpee did not understand.

This incident involving evolved into a high-profile trial of nine young men arrested. Defended by one of the American Indian Movement’s most skilled and dogged attorneys.

Some 40 years later, the legacy of this story lives on in a book by Paula Peters titled ‘Mashpee Nine: A Story of Cultural Justice’. The young men targeted by police on that fateful night are now elders, yet the incident is not widely known outside of the Mashpee Wampanoag.
This short documentary film recovers the story of the Mashpee Nine and will be presented in The Drum, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker, Paula Peters.

Thursday 27^th April 2023 – 2.45pm

Wampanoag Takeover: Conservation and Land Ownership with Q&A with Kitty Hendricks

The Drum

Native Land Conservancy (NLC) was founded in 2012 in Mashpee, Massachusetts. It is the first Native-run land conservation group east of the Mississippi. After centuries of hardship and economic struggle, it is only now that they can finally attend to the important work of protecting sacred spaces, habitat areas and other essential ecosystem resources to benefit Mother Earth and all human beings.

Join NLC board member Kitty Hendricks as she takes us through NLC’s aim to preserve healthy landscapes for all living things and help restore land back to its original state wherever possible. She will unpack how NLC draw upon their collective traditional cultural knowledge as indigenous people with generations of direct experience in the woodlands, coastlines, and waterways of New England to carry out this work.

Thursday 27^th April 2023 – 7:45pm

Wampanoag Takeover: An Evening of Wampanoag Music and Spoken Word

The Drum

The Wampanoag Nation is renowned for its wealth of musicians and creatives. This evening will celebrate that with an array of artists from the Wampanoag Nation sharing their craft. The evening will include singers and songwriters, musical improvisation, spoken word artists and Wampanoag Hip Hop Artist, Asa Peters, with more artists to be announced.