13th Annual Pocumtuck Homelands Festival

the festival will include memorable, inspiring presentations by: Beloved Mohawk Elder Tom Porter Beautiful mesmerizing flute music by Nipmuck flute maker Hawk Henries Aquinnah Wampanoag singer songwriter Thea Hopkins Nipmuc culture bearer Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines, who will share Eastern woodlands skills demonstrations and lead social dances on Sunday only which all are invited to participate in Abenaki story tellers and musicians Joseph and Jesse Bruchac (Saturday only) Penobscot Rez Dog Singers Liz Coldwind-Santana Kiser, Elder, Council member, and the THPO of the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians will offer opening words of Welcome. Justin Beatty will emcee The History Tent will feature talks by Marge Bruchac, “Recovering Histories of Native Presence”; members of the Native Land Conservancy, “Indigenous Land Rescue”; and Evan Pritchard, “Lost Cosmologies of the Algonquin People” David Brule will share brief local historical insights derived from his popular ‘King Philip’s War in Your Backyard” presentations at intervals between presentations. Scott Strong Hawk Foster, Nipmuc photographer whose exhibit is on display within walking distance down the bike path at the Great Falls Discovery Center, will be present for conversations at his booth both days. There will be children’s activities including corn husk doll making with Mashpee-Wampanoag Kitty Hendricks-Miller, Indian Education Coordinator for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and fish printing with FirstLight/DCR. We host about 40 outstanding Indigenous artists and authors in a colorful and diverse marketplace that extends the full length of the riverside bike path on both sides.   It is a wonderful, uplifting, multi-generational, accessible and free event people look forward to every year.