Picture in Hand You never know when inspiration is going to sneak up and hit you. It could be a walk in the cold, while working or maybe even at a construction site. This is a collection of pictures I have taken when I felt inspired by the beauty of ...

Mother Earth Water Walk When I began walking in the Eastern portion of the Mother Earth Water Walk that began on May 7, 2011, in Machiasport, Maine, I had little knowledge of the story behind the walk or of the remarkable Anishinaabe elder, teacher, water protector, and human being Josephine ...

Walruses On The Rings Of Saturn – I purchased a wood panel about ten years ago and asked my son to draw a picture of some walruses taken from a photograph I found in National Geographic.  He drew the images in white chalk and the unfinished work sat until December ...

Maurice Kenny was born in Watertown, New York on August 16, 1929 to parents of mixed ethnic heritage; his father, Anthony Andrew Kenny, was of both Mohawk and Irish ancestry, while his mother Doris Herrick Kenny, was both Seneca and English. He was raised in both Watertown and Bayonne, New ...

On Wampanoag Clothing in Native Fashion Now by Elizabeth James-Perry I would have to conclude, after this playful photograph was snapped at the November 2015 exhibit opening, that my brother and I are indeed, Re-visitors. My Aquinnah women’s outfit in Native Fashion Now, Peabody Essex Museum exemplifies the way trade ...

The Pageant My earliest memories of the Pageant are of being embarrassed. The Pageant is an annual event my Tribe puts on for non-Tribal members where we dress up in traditional clothing and act out Wampanoag legends. As a kid it felt like a chore. I didn’t want to walk ...

Per the request of the late Abenaki Elder Gali Sanchez, this poem was lovingly read at his ceremony, as his ashes were laid to rest in the Connecticut River.   Seeing Some things are clear as the eyes of a just-caught fish. Others dance at the edge of our circle of seeing as a bat at dusk. Some ...

All the Way to the Bone I wish, I pray, I prayed, I thought, I even sing, for all good things to come your way, I told myself all those who hurt you, harm you, humilitate you, will answer, everybody thinks that way when it is a loved one, but ...

Coats 1. It was fall and he was gone again. Oh, he’ll probably come back drunk, she thought to herself. And he thinks I drink way too much, hunh! She smoothed back her hair and looked in the mirror. That deep longing of loneliness was tugging at her again. The ...

Mi’kmaq Creation Story for Faith Liljegren upon her Confirmation Of course you are familiar with the Genesis creation stories, and know others exist in different cultures around our world. We Mi’kmaq have our version, too—deep and involved. It goes something like this: All life seen and unseen comes from me, ...

Writer’s Statement You could say that my sons turned me into a children’s author at a time when my main objective was writing and publishing poetry. First of all, the traditional Abenaki and Iroquois stories I told them as bedtime stories (stories I’d learned not in my own childhood from ...

Believe   Hold on, be strong  Finding our strength in who we are  Through our ancestor’s ways  Will help us get through each and every day.  No time for shame or blame  Our life is no game  We go through hurt of pain  If we choose to dwell  We have nothing ...