Wabanaki Basketry Exhibition Highlights Innovation and Resilience

In late January, the Museum will open the student-curated exhibition Innovation and Resilience Across Three Generations of Wabanaki Basket Making. Organized by members of Bowdoin’s Native American Students Association (NASA), the exhibition aims to highlight the rich tradition of Wabanaki basketry and showcase dynamic innovations from Abenaki, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Micmac artists. The three student curators—Amanda Cassano ’22, Sunshine Eaton ’22, and Shandiin Largo ’23—hope that the project will raise awareness on indigenous heritage while strengthening connections between the College and Wabanaki communities.

“We are thrilled that we had an opportunity to work with the Bowdoin College Museum of Art to showcase Wabanaki artistry,” said Cassano. “I hope that this exhibition creates more opportunities for Bowdoin community members and Wabanaki citizens to make use of Bowdoin’s resources in order to bring about historical justice.”

Largo adds that she believes an exhibition such as this has been long-overdue. “I think this exhibition is a great start to rekindle those connections [between Bowdoin and Wabanaki communities], because this was a project guided by the amazing artistry and genius of Wabanaki basket makers, as well as input from NASA leaders like myself to keep the narrative focused on Indigenous artistry, strength, and the ongoing resistance against settler colonialism within Indigenous communities. I’m most excited about seeing the completed exhibition in the spring because this truly was a labor of love that I look forward to sharing with the Bowdoin community and beyond,” Largo said.

Highlighting themes of resilience, community, and creativity, the exhibition brings together historical examples of Wabanaki basketry with contemporary ones. The select works include objects from BCMA’s permanent collection, as well as generous loans from the Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum and the Maine Historical Society. They demonstrate a diverse range of basket-weaving techniques and styles, featuring functional, utilitarian baskets as well as ornate fancy baskets, which were popularized by commercial and cultural exchange with tourists and outside collectors. These baskets combine ingenious designs with masterful weaving, serving as a vital form of economic independence and maintaining artistic agency.

Equally central to the exhibition is the importance of family tradition and intergenerational knowledge. Designs, motifs, and distinctive forms are commonly passed down within specific families, with each generation further adopting these signature styles and bringing forth new creations. The exhibition pays tribute to influential master basket-weavers, such as Fred Tomah, Clara Neptune Keezer, and Molly Neptune Parker H’15, who have inspired subsequent generations of artists that continue to celebrate and revitalize Wabanaki cultures through basket-making.

In addition, the student curators are working to launch a website that will serve as a virtual companion to the exhibition. The website will include objects from the exhibition, as well as additional resources such as high-resolution photography and 360-degree imaging of the baskets, translations of exhibition labels into Wabanaki languages, and other related content to make scholarship on Wabanaki art and history more broadly accessible. The Museum is grateful for the students’ research on these important baskets and for organizing an exhibition that makes visible Wabanaki artists’ invaluable contributions and achievements.  

The exhibition will open on January 27, 2022 and remain on view through May 1, 2022 in the Markell Gallery.

Sabrina Lin '21
Curatorial Assistant and Manager of Student Programs
Bowdoin College Museum of Art