Native Waters; Native Lands – Wetu Installation at CAM Green

CAM Green, 13 Poplar Street, Gloucester, MA
Free and open to the public

Join the Cape Ann Museum and SmokeSygnals, a Wampanoag creative production firm, for the installation of a wetu (traditional home) at CAM Green on Friday, May 5 and Saturday, May 6. This installation is the first stage of Native Waters; Native Lands, a collaborative partnership coordinated by the Museum between the Gloucester 400+ Anniversary Committee, Discover Gloucester, the City of Gloucester, and SmokeSygnals.

The traditional Wampanoag structure is made of cedar saplings which were harvested by SmokeSygnals earlier in the spring. The saplings are bent to create the frame of the wetu, which traditionally would have been covered in bark during the colder months and in cattail mats during warmer months. Once installed, visitors will be welcome to walk through the wetu and sit on benches inside whenever CAM Green is open. Learn more about Native history during the Colonel Samuel Tappan and the Navajo Treaty 155th Commemoration on May 19 and CAMTalks: The Bull Brook Site and the PaleoIndian period in Southern New England on June 3.

With support from the local partners, in addition to creating the wetu CAM Green, SmokeSygnals will create a mush8n (traditional canoe) at Stage Fort Park for A Celebration of Place: The Cultural Heritage Festival presented by the Gloucester 400+ Anniversary Committee on October 7 and 8, 2023. Together, the wetu and mush8n highlight how Native communities live, travel, and fish in this region both historically and today. Following the festival, they will be displayed together at CAM Green in 2024 and 2025 as a multi-year temporary installation to continue the conversation about Native Waters; Native Lands in Gloucester.

This project is generously funded in part by the Essex County Community Foundation’s Creative County Initiative.