UMaine’s Annual Indian Basketmakers Sale Dec. 10

ORONO — The 2011 Maine Indian Basketmakers Sale and Demonstration will take place Saturday, Dec. 10 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine. The event is free and open to the public.

The annual holiday event features Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Basketmakers who sell their hand-made, one of a kind, ash-splint and sweetgrass basketry. Workbaskets, such as creels, pack and potato baskets, and fancy baskets ranging from strawberry and blueberry shaped baskets to curly bowls, will be available for purchase, along with quill jewelry, woodcarvings and birchbark work. Traditional music, demonstrations of brown ash pounding, basketmaking, and birchbark work and a children’s workshop, in addition to traditional drumming and dancing, will be part of the day’s activities.

The schedule is as follows:

  • 9 a.m., Doors open for the public;
  • 10 a.m. – Traditional welcome with Penobscot Chief Kirk Francis and traditional greeting songs;
  • 10:30 a.m. – Celebrating the return of Penobscot  Material  Culture to Maine in the Maine Indian Gallery, third  level
  • 11 a.m. – Brown ash pounding and work basket demonstration with Micmac Eldon Hanning;
  • 11:30 a.m. – Sweetgrass Angel  workshop for children with Penobscot Ruth Johnson in the Maine Indian Gallery;
  • 12 p.m. – Birchbark presentation with Barry Dana, Hudson Museum;
  • 1 p.m. – Fancy basket presentation with Passamaquoddy George Neptune;
  • 2-3 p.m. – Burnurwurbskek Singers with traditional signing and drumming;
  • 3 p.m. – Drawing for the Hudson Museum Friends Maine Indian Basket Raffle.

This year’s Hudson Museum Friends Raffle basket is made by Pam Cunningham of the Penobscot Nation. Cunningham was a member of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance Board of Directors from 1998 to 2002 and a master weaver through the Maine Arts Commission’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program since 1999, according to Hudson Museum Director Gretchen Faulkner, who hosts the annual basketmakers’ sale.

Visitors also can explore the Museum’s Maine Indian Gallery and “Transcending Traditions; The Next Generation and Maine Indian Basketry,” a special exhibit in the Merritt Gallery of the works of five young contemporary artists. The event hosted every year by the Hudson Museum is a collaboration with the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance.
The museum can be contacted at (207) 581-1904 for details.

Contact: Gretchen Faulkner, (207) 581-1904