Brown Ash Traditions with Theresa Secord Video Transcript

Visual: A panning image of a museum exhibit behind a title card that reads “Theresa Secord, Penobscot, Brown Ash Traditions, Wabanaki Gallery”

Visual: A woman standing with a museum exhibit of baskets behind her. She is an older woman with white hair pulled into a low pony tail, glasses, a white cotton shirt beneath a colorful cardigan, and mauve pants.

Voice of Theresa Secord: *Speaking Penobscot*

My name is Theresa Secord. I’m a member of the Penobscot Indian Nation, and I’m a basketmaker. So, I’m here today to talk about the Wabanaki basketry case at the Hudson Museum and just share some of my insights and thoughts over the course of the case, and a little bit about my work, too, as a basketmaker myself for the last 35 years.

So, we get started.

Visual: The woman walks to the far end of the museum exhibit and begins speaking, referencing items in the case as she does, and slowly moving through the exhibit toward the viewer. Throughout, brief inset images provide a closer look at the objects she references.

Voice of Theresa Secord: It’s really neat to start at the area where, kind of everything began. I love that the creation story is here, where Gluskap is said to have come into the territory here. Gluskap was the culture hero of the Wabanaki people. And he shot an arrow into the ash tree and from the tree came the first people. And of course, ash is the material that we use for our basket weaving. It’s sacred in that it’s the source of our origin, but, also, it’s really kind of known as ‘the silk of the basket woods’ in terms of basket weaving and a very special wood to us, which sadly is threatened right now.

Looking at the history, I love seeing the early tools and gauges, wooden forms for our basketry.

Visual: Inset of a wooden tool with an elaborately chip-carved handle with diamond and plant motifs. The forward end of the tool has a brass plate that supports a series of closely-set tiny blades. A label reads HM9435.

Voice of Theresa Secord: I was fortunate to inherit my great-grandmother’s wooden forms and tools. So, I weave all of my baskets, you know, using her shapes, still, and styles.

Visual: Inset of a wooden tool with a chip-carved handle, simpler than the previous example. Three small blades can be seen at the far end of the tool. A label reads HM9424.

Voice of Theresa Secord: But my gauges, these extraordinary historic examples of Penobscot basket splint gauges, I have since retired. They really are museum quality pieces. And each one is carved; each one is personal. You’ll see the basketmaker’s thumbprint, really, kind of, as an indentation showing how well-used these gauges were, and you’ll see, like, family designs and carved images and sometimes even the images of clan animals on these basketry gauges. And it’s also neat that the little metal pieces that cut the wood strips for us into the different widths are made with watch spring, sharpened watch spring and clock spring. And today people will use different types of steel that have, you know, the same kind that is used in Exacto knives and razors, like that. But these are really the superior steels that were used in the early gauges.

Visual: Inset of of a wooden comb, longer than it is wide and with five large, widely-spaced teeth. A label reads HM9439.

Voice of Theresa Secord: I see a sweetgrass comb here, which is lovely.

Visual: Inset of a knife with a simple, single-sided blade and a handle that curves away from the cutting edge. The handle is wooden and the end is carved into the shape of a simple bird head. A label reads HM9410.

Voice of Theresa Secord: Oh, and so there is a crooked knife with the head of a goose it looks like, or a duck. And, again, seeing that people were connected to the natural world even through the toolmaking and, you know, how usually it would be the men, probably, making these tools for the women basketmakers who were weaving the fancy baskets. And, again, they’re expressing themselves through their clans and through the natural world. And these pieces date well back into the 1800s and early-1900s.

Visual: Inset of a wooden tool shaped like a triangle attached to a base. A thin wooden strip has been fed through a hole in one side of the triangle and up through the apex where it splits into multiple thinner, slightly curled pieces. A label reads HM5728.

Voice of Theresa Secord: So, I also see an ash splitter here, which is still the way that we split our wood. This is a very nice antique, which I have one almost identical.

Visual: Inset of a basket, short, square bottom supporting a larger open, round top portion with two handles at the rime. The sides are decorated with curls. A label reads HM9574.

Voice of Theresa Secord: So moving through the case, you see the earlier open-weave fancy baskets, and these would have been started to have been made for a tourist economy.  

Visual: Inset of a large, round, covered basket woven with alternating wide and thin strips, some dyed or painted a dark blue. A label reads HM9639.

Voice of Theresa Secord: Band baskets, also. Those are oftentimes made [with] the heavier wood, and the larger baskets would oftentimes be made by the men. Of course, the men are pounding the ash logs and, you know, preparing the materials, gathering, cutting the trees down in the first place. And often you would see them making the so-called work band baskets, whereas the women would be making the fancy baskets.

And I’m really proud that our people plugged into the tourism economy in Maine, which is still, I think, the largest sector of the Maine economy. And, so, this was a, you know, what would be called, I guess, a cottage industry. And, so, the tribal people were really industrious in plugging in to, you know, making baskets for every part of the tourist trade, but also, working baskets.

Visual: Inset of a basket with a square base supporting a larger open, round top with two small handles at the rim and lines of fine curls on the outside surface. Small baskets of an open, hexagonal weave are attached to the inside rim of the open top. A label reads HM9585.

Voice of Theresa Secord: So, of course, there’s sewing baskets for the houses, for the people who were coming from Philadelphia, New York and Boston in the summer along the coast; they’re meeting up with the basketmakers to buy those items.

Visual: Inset of a large, sturdy basket with a square base graduating to a round open top with two sturdy handles at the rim. Basket is woven with thicker, rougher splints and has been painted with an “A” the cross-bar of which wraps around the body of the basket.. A label reads HM9605.

Voice of Theresa Secord: But also, you’re seeing the Passamaquoddy fish scale basket, the double handle with the A symbol, which, I guess, represents a particular company.

Visual: Inset of a basket woven in a form similar to a backpack with a slightly constricted base widening to a rounded “belly” and constricting to an open top with a single, sturdy handle at the back of the rim. A label reads HM4841.

Voice of Theresa Secord: And, the Penobscot pack basket, which is a quintessential basket, for hunting and fishing. And, again, thinking of the times when, you know, President Roosevelt and other presidents were coming to hunt and fish in Maine. And they had, and even prior to that, they had, you know, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy guides. And they were using these pack baskets to go into the deep North Woods, along with, the guides. And these pack baskets were… I think this is our most ancient form of all the baskets represented in this case. They were made for hunting and fishing, of course, but also, you can see the shape is made to fit in the ancient birchbark canoe. So probably, you know, 10-12,000-year-old basket [form].

Visual: The speaker has now moved near the camera and directs her speech toward the viewer, smiling, and occasionally looking off into the distance or back at the exhibit as she speaks.

Voice of Theresa Secord: So, I remember when I first started working with the basketmakers in my role as the Director of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, and I was reading some literature by a Maine historian speaking about how they had determined, the historians, had determined that the tribal people had learned to make baskets from the Shakers, you know, that religious community in western Maine, southwestern Maine. And I highly doubted that. I knew that from our own stories, and, again, working in my family and my tribe, and I found out later that, actually, not only was it the other way around, which is obvious to us now, and everybody else, but, the people were even paying the Shakers, the Penobscot people, were paying the Shakers to make certain styles of woven ash ‘lace’ they called it, and different embellishments in the past. So they were actually involved in the basketmaking, being employed by the Native Americans. So it was very much the other way around! And I don’t think our origin story being based in the ash tree was, you know, made up for the tourists. It shows a clear, clear link to a strong Wabanaki relationship with this tree and the basketry.

Visual: The speaker looks back toward the exhibit, again referencing objects on display in the case as she speaks and the inset images resume.

Voice of Theresa Secord: Moving into some, you know, more embellished fancy baskets.

Visual: Inset of a long, low, rectangular basket embellished with wide, twisting strips of shiny wood splints. A label reads HM9516.

Voice of Theresa Secord: You see this; I love this example of the Penobscot glove basket where the wood is twisted. There’s, of course, ash wood in there and braided sweetgrass. But the main design there is this really beautiful wavy, ash material. And you can only get that from the sap wood, the outer part of the tree where the wood has been double split, sometimes even triple and quadruple split. And at that point, when you’re basically pinching and making this wave weave, the ash is really fresh, and you could basically see through it, almost thinner than paper in some instances. And this is why I refer to the ash as ‘the silk of the basket woods’, because people know that Cherokee people and others use oak and different kinds of woods, but you really you could never do that with any other kind of wood. So, I applaud our ancestors, too, for their artistry, but also that technical ability to, you know, do the kinds of things that were done with the ash wood.

Visual: Inset of a rectangular basket embellished with wide, folded curls of wood and with two handles that hang around either end of the basket. A label reads HM9571.

Voice of Theresa Secord: Oh, [that] picnic basket is really lovely; great patina on that from the early 1900s, 1910. And of course, a lot of these examples here are from the Leo and Florence Shay Collection. And this reminds me of, to speak about Robert Anderson who was their descendant. He collected baskets and many of these fine examples came to the Hudson Museum through his foresight, over the decades, knowing that people really weren’t putting the time and energy into these baskets anymore, and that some of these weaves and this, you know, highly embellished work was not being seen anymore. And, so, his obviously, you know, his parents were amazing basketmakers. But the fact that he, as a Penobscot, was documenting our basketry and his own culture is really quite remarkable. You don’t see that; there aren’t any other examples of someone like that doing that. And of course, he was engaged in the tourism trade, having a store where his parents had the tent at Lincolnville Beach and also, you know, having his store in the Lincolnville area after that and carrying that on. Just a really unique guy. So we thank him for these  amazing examples where, my son is a basket maker now, aged 33, Caleb Hoffman, and he’ll be able to come in and see the styles and types of baskets that his great-grandmother made, you know, his and our ancestors.

Visual: Inset of a woven fan with circular head and wrapped sweetgrass handle. The circular fan is woven with alternating areas of narrow ash strips and unbraided sweetgrass and the margin is finished with an open, lacy woven ash embellishment. No label (object is on loan from Penobscot Nation Museum).

Voice of Theresa Secord: This little Wabanaki fan is cool and it has some of that lace that I’m talking about where the ash on the edges has been, like, pre… almost braided and woven and, I’m not sure if that’s kind of the lace that the Shakers did, but, again, you’ll see those embellishments from that time to around 1900.

Visual: Inset of a basket in the form of an acorn with a green body woven of dyed ash and a brown “hat” cover woven with sweetgrass braids and with a hole in the center framed by a star ring. A large, open, ring is attached to the cover by two smaller rings. A label reads HM9491.

Voice of Theresa Secord: I see the Penobscot acorn tatting basket. And that’s a familiar form for a lot of us, but of course, people are weaving acorns today, but not the tatting, because that practice has, you know, gone out of favor.  People aren’t tatting anymore. So you see the baskets changing with uses, with tourism, and then, you know, with the resurgence of basketry through the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance work, you know, really, now almost 30 years, a little more than 30 years since our organization was founded, you see the market changing and the basketry changing with the market, to these more artistic and, kind of, higher-end art pieces. But before we get to a couple of those, I still want to point out some more antique pieces.

Visual: Inset of a long, low, rectangular basket woven with fine sweetgrass braids and embellished on the top and sides with a wide, shiny ash strip woven alternately with crossing “x” shapes of braided sweetgrass. A label reads HM9515.

Voice of Theresa Secord: The Penobscot glovebox here is really lovely. I actually wove a replica of this piece and won a prize on it in the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market this year [2025] in Phoenix, Arizona, which is, like, the second largest juried Native American art market.

Visual: Inset is replaced with one of a basket very similar in form, but with more pronounced, protruding ribbons of ash which are very pale, standing out against a darker background, and with some of the narrow ash weavers dyed a rich red or bright teal.

Voice of Theresa Secord: And it was really nice because there’s a lot of documentation of people sitting and weaving this style together. And, so, even though people are taking the art form further into new shapes and, you know, technical weaves and difficulty, I also, in my work, like to pay tribute to some of the antique work. Because, again, those basketmakers were amazing.

Visual: Inset of a basket, wider than it is tall, simple weave, slightly contracted at base, and with a single handle in the center. A label reads HM6887.

Voice of Theresa Secord: The Penobscot market basket or shopper is really neat because, I can remember visiting my grandparents on Indian Island nearby here, and this is what they would go to the A & P with if they were just getting a couple things at the store. And they were different shapes. And this is a really particularly fine basket that looks very sturdy too. I love that shape. But they would put the handle on their arm, on their forearm. And even when my grandmother came to visit us in South Portland when we were growing up, she’d bring her little camera in there, and her chewing gum, whatever, it’s almost like instead of a purse. So I thought that was really cool. And I actually saw that in New Zealand when I visited a Māori community and the women were all carrying what they call ‘ketes’ and you see that they still do. So I like that there was some wearable art going on at the same time, and it was very utilitarian.

Visual: Inset of a basket in an exhibit case, circular in shape, simple weave, slightly rounded at base, and with a single handle in the center.

Voice of Theresa Secord: The Mi’kmaq potato basket, of course, is classic in Wabanaki culture. My friends Mary and Donald Sanipass, founding members of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, and of course, I was their first director, and Donald and I, actually, you know, founded the organization as our signatures are on the papers of incorporation in 1993. So, at the time he was, I can’t remember if he was a Chief or Councilman at the, Aroostook Band of Mi’kmaqs and, you know, very committed. A lot of the people that I worked with were so committed to keeping the basketry alive and teaching in our Traditional Arts Apprenticeship programs, which went on for nearly 20 years and had been started through the Maine Arts Commission with my good friend Kathleen Mundell prior to. So, the founders were really concerned about making sure the basketry continued on after they were going to be gone.

Visual: The speaker has turned the corner of the case and is now referencing more contemporary works.

Voice of Theresa Secord: Okay, moving through the case now, leading into more of the contemporary baskets made by some members of the next generation of basketmakers and their mentors. And so I can show here two pieces that were made, actually, by my great-grandmother.  And, while I didn’t learn from her, I learned from a younger friend of hers, Madeline Tomer Shay, but I do weave all my baskets on the same wooden forms using the same tools, largely. And I watched her making baskets when I was growing up and, so, was able to visit with her on Indian Island and just, you know, observe. That really wasn’t something you were invited to do when the basketmakers were working in those days.

Visual: The speaker gestures to a basket in the case. The basket is a low, rectangular basket with a cover. A braided handle can be seen on the top and hints of curls can be seen on the sides of the basket.

Voice of Theresa Secord: But this is a really fine example, her name was Philomene Saulis Nelson, of a glove box, or it could even be a stationary box, a little bit wider. And actually, I have, woven  several baskets on the same wooden form that she wove this basket on, and the most recent is a basket that’s made to commemorate sturgeon and it’s in the permanent collection in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. So, it’s kind of interesting how versatile some of these wooden forms are; almost endless possibilities on what you can weave with the same form.

Visual: Inset of a basket in the form of a barrel – rounded and slightly contracted at top and bottom. A ring-shaped handle is attached on either side and the weavers are of undyed ash, a few dyed brown, taupe, and yellow, and of a twisted cord, known as Hong Kong Cord, which also wraps the ring handles. A label reads HM5127.

Voice of Theresa Secord: The Penobscot barrel basket is a really quintessential shape from Indian Island. My great-grandmother was actually born the Tobique First Nation, and she was Maliseet, from New Brunswick, and she married a Penobscot. And, actually, two of her sisters did also. So, a number of basketmakers were in that family, and they all were, I think, weaving similar styles. But we do think that that Penobscot barrel basket was also woven by my great-grandmother. And I actually have the wooden form, that collapses, that  that basket was woven onto. And I have a really classic photo, it’s not one of the ones in the back of the case here, but a classic photo of her with the baskets in front of her. It says “Baskets for Sale,” on the Indian Island, nearby, Penobscot community, in 1953.

So, just moving through, beautiful example of a Passamaquoddy purse by Mary Gabriel.

Visual: Inset of a rectangular basket with a cover that closes with a ring-in-ring closure. It is woven of narrow splints of undyed ash and sweetgrass braids. It has a strap made of braided Hong Kong cord. A label reads HM9494.

Voice of Theresa Secord: And she was a founding member of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance.

Visual: Two brief inset images in succession show two views of a low rectangular basket with a cover and rounded corners. It is woven mostly with sweetgrass braids except for a rectangle of ash weavers alternating with sweetgrass braids in the center of the cover. The cover rim is loose sweetgrass wrapped with a narrow strip of ash. A label reads HM9037.

Voice of Theresa Secord: And one of her stationary boxes, which is this oblong piece, lots of braided sweetgrass, lots of really fine work. And I have to say, I think Mary Gabriel was the first to, really, charge newer prices for her work in that, prior to Mary Gabriel, kind of, weaving these amazing pieces and demanding a price, you know, that was worthy of the work involved. Other basketmakers were looking at their weaving as a way to pay the light bill. You know, it’s literally what they said. And, so, this would have been right around the late-1980s and early-1990s. And, I just, really, was amazed by that. I think she would have…  I remember her charging $350 for this basket, the oblong stationary box, in 1994, and that seemed like an astounding amount of money at the time. And so kudos to her for knowing her worth and knowing the value of this really remarkable art form and ancient tradition.

Visual: Inset of a basket, round, expanding from the bottom to a rounded shoulder and finished with a flat, inset cover. The basket is woven of narrow, mostly brown ash splints with a diamond pattern made with splints dyed orange, green, and red, and the top, shoulder, and cover woven with Hong Kong cord. Two star-wrapped ash ring handles are attached to the sides and a smaller to the center of the cover. A large stain or water mark can be seen over most of the body of the basket. A label reads HM9753.

Voice of Theresa Secord: I’m going backwards a little bit, too, because this Penobscot fancy basket that’s brown and almost shaped like a sort of, a baked bean pot is catching my eye. And that’s really a lovely piece. And that was woven about 100 years ago. And, so, just thinking about the basketmakers and the shapes and the different styles that they were, you know, innovating and trying to express themselves creatively, but also to, you know, be able to market their work.

This is, again, the fancy basket tradition.

Visual: Inset of a basket woven with pale, undyed ash with a narrow base, expanding to a circular cover and topped with a lotus-like flower formed of thin ash petals. There is no label, however this is HM8215.

Voice of Theresa Secord: There’s a really cool Passamaquoddy lotus lily bowl woven by Claire Gabriel. And she was a daughter to Mary Gabriel. And that piece is neat because people had put flowers on the tops of baskets before, but she, kind of, was the first one to do the lotus style.

Another daughter of Mary Gabriel, and founding member of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, and a founding board member, was Sylvia Gabriel.

Visual: The speaker gestures to a basket in the case. The basket is made of undyed ash and is wider at the rounded base and narrows slightly to the cover. It is completely covered with fine, pointed curls of undyed ash. (HM8633)

Voice of Theresa Secord: This piece, the porcupine weave and its really lovely shape; there were older styles of people using that porcupine weave, but Sylvia Gabriel really brought it to the forefront in the late-1980s, and that actually has a date on it of 2000.

That work heavily influenced her apprentice, who was Frances Gal Frey, who was a great bead worker, and she’s one of my contemporaries, and she was working in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program funded through the Maine Arts Commission and working through the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. And so, Frances, or Gal Frey, was her apprentice and starting to weave that style.

And then along comes her son, Jeremy Frey, who is like, you know, probably one of the most renowned ash wood basketmakers alive today, Native or non-Native. And he currently [May 2025] has a show, Jeremy Frey: Woven, at the Bruce Museum opening in Connecticut, which has traveled from the Portland Museum of Art to the Art Institute of Chicago. And, so, [he’s] a very successful basketmaker in his mid-40s who’s Passamaquoddy. But you can see his style relating back, because he uses a lot of points in his baskets, and, of course, his style and his aesthetic have gone way beyond, and he’s really, kind of, contemporized the art form way beyond the pieces that we’re seeing here. But his foundation is here with Sylvia Gabriel’s work and then his mom. And you can trace that, and he points to that in his work. So, it’s really kind of cool to see, because being associated with these basketmakers, the founding members, the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, and then the new generation of weavers who came through that work in Maine, I just I don’t think we ever anticipated, you know, how far the tradition could go and that we would see young men weaving these fancy baskets.

Next, I can point to some remarkable examples of, again, work in families that is handed down. So Molly Neptune Parker’s grandchildren, Frances Soctomah and Geo Neptune Soctomah, and they are siblings.

Visual: Two insets: Left: A basket, seen 3/4 from above, woven of pale, undyed ash with sweetgrass braid loop handles on each side. The cover is decorated with a cluster of flowers surrounding a braided sweetgrass loop. The flowers are made of ash “petals” dyed a deep red and woven together at the base to form flowers, accented with deep green ash “leaves”. A label reads HM9259. Right: A basket in the form of a three-tier wedding cake, woven with undyed ash and each tier accented with ash dyed a different color: brown (bottom), orange (middle), and yellow (top). The top is decorated with a cluster of flowers formed like those in the image on the left, two of mauve and two of orange. The basket is framed by a spray of twigs with small flowers and birds woven of dyed ash. (On loan from the Penobscot Nation Museum)

Voice of Theresa Secord: And, just remarkable work. And you can see their grandmother’s, reflection in her style and in their baskets, as well, with the flower top.

Visual: Inset of a basket woven with pale, undyed brown ash and braided sweetgrass. A band of pointed curls decorates the side. The cover is topped with a cluster of pale ash flowers with deep green leaves formed as those discussed above within a ring of fine ash points and surrounding a braided ash handle. A label reads HM9256.

Voice of Theresa Secord: And you see some really contemporary creativity with Geo’s work as well. In particular, kind of making new forms and really expressing themself in their own unique way. And still they’re innovating in fashion and other areas. So, I think the basketry is like sort of the foundation too, of the work, but things are coming through, you know, other art forms, and opens up a lot of possibility.

Visual: Inset of a basket formed as a cob of corn with the husk pulled away. The corn is formed with curls of red, brown, and undyed ash and the husk portion is formed of dark green ash splints attached to the small cover and held in a cluster at the end with a sweetgrass braid. A label reads HM9748.

Voice of Theresa Secord: The corn is a really unique style. I do see other tribes weaving some corn baskets. People at Akwesasne from the Mohawk nation. But, I believe that that style originated in Maine with these older kinds of styles of fruits and vegetables that weavers were making. We saw the acorn earlier in the case, and we know our basketmakers were weaving strawberries, as did the Mohawks. But, now, there’s like a proliferation of corn weaving. And I guess that’s a little bit past now, but for a while everybody was weaving corn, baskets made to look like corn woven completely of ash wood with the little sweetgrass trim. And it’s actually Theresa Neptune Gardner, who’s Passamaquoddy, one of the famous  Neptune sisters, who, kind of, took the yellow corn that her sister, Clara Neptune Keezer, was weaving, and made it into this, kind of, you know, what they call ‘Indian corn’. And, this one was woven by Kim Bryant, who’s Penobscot.

Visual: Inset of a basket woven with pale, undyed ash and fine sweetgrass braids. The basket is very rounded, contracting slightly at top and base, and with a flat, inset cover. Decorative curls of various forms are interspersed with fine sweetgrass braids to create bands of intricate patterns on the sides and cover. A ring handle can be seen at the top. A label reads HL1334 (this piece on loan from the Penobscot Nation Museum).

Voice of Theresa Secord: Pointing to, mentioning Clara Neptune Keezer, she’s a 2002 National Heritage Fellow, recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts for her creativity and, really, really well-known artist, basketmaker, extremely creative. She was even weaving snowmen, you know, made to look… baskets, made to look like snowmen, and bumblebees, and seemed like the sky was the limit on what she was thinking and how she could translate those designs into wood; really quite remarkable. And she was known for a lot of her colorful work, too, which, this is more muted, but a real matriarch in the Neptune-Keezer family and also a very, very dedicated teacher. I believe that Clara was, probably the most steady teacher in the 21 years of apprenticeships that came through the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. So, you can look at, like, the offspring of her apprenticeships, not just in her family, like Kenny Keezer and Rocky Keezer, but also how many others of us, even, who were inspired or, you know, learned some weaves from her, for example, even in a tribal community basketry workshop where we taught.

Visual: Inset of a large, rectangular basket woven with pale, undyed ash. Decorative curls in the sides are sent in paired rows with the curls pointing toward the center of each pair. Wrapped ring handles hang at each end. A label reads HM9269.

Voice of Theresa Secord: Moving through to, there’s a fancy basket, or, a so-called ‘fancy basket,’ by Frank Hanning. He’s really from an important family. His father, Eldon, one of the founding board members of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. And they supply a lot of the ash wood to the basketmakers, including myself. And this is three decades on now, plus. And so, nice to see him express his work here with the points on this really fine basket, because a lot of the work that they’ve produced has been making dozens, hundreds, thousands by now, I’m sure, potato baskets for the potato farming industry. There’s still some potatoes are picked by hand in Aroostook County where they live, near Limestone.

The point basket in the back here is made by Ganessa Bryant.

Visual: Inset of a colorful, rounded basket, narrowed at bottom, wide in the middle, and contracted slightly at the cover. The basket is covered in pointed curls and weavers are of ash both undyed and dyed purple and teal and organized to create vertical stripes of undyed weavers with undyed points and of purple weavers with teal points. (On loan from the Penobscot Nation Museum.)

Voice of Theresa Secord: She apprenticed with Jeremy Frey and, really, a great use of color in her work,  and also the execution of the points, and even, really well-known for her little mini baskets, which I’ve seen her sell in the art markets and just like hotcakes. And I guess there was one more, this reminds me of this, going back to this little, tiny Penobscot candy basket from 1940.

Visual: Inset of a tiny green and red basket with arched handle and curls. A label reads HM8420 and is larger than the basket.

Voice of Theresa Secord: I have to share a story because, again, thinking about minis, and that’s a beautiful mini, and it has these little, small curls on it, but that is very much like a basket you would see in a tourist trade basketmakers tent, you know, looking at the tent behind here, although this is a very early photo. What does that one say? Okay, that’s in Maritime Canada from the early 1900s, but… These little candy baskets were called, I think Sylvia Gabriel called them ‘charmsis’. And what they were was, like, a little charm basket. And she translated that word  to mean ‘the little baskets that make the children cry’. And that was really cute because I guess, you know, the parents would come to the basketmakers tent, or, in later years it would be a physical shop and store, people are selling, particularly along the coast of Maine, Kennebunkport, you know, Rockport, Lincolnville Beach, Indian Island had a basket shop, and the children would point to those little, tiny miniature baskets and want their parents to buy one. And, so, their parents would say no, and their children would cry. So, *lauging* really kind of cute.

But to think of the price, I think that one says 10¢ from 1940 as the price tag, and the miniature pieces that I saw  Ganessa selling, you know, probably 15 years ago for $500 each, would be well over that now. It’s just remarkable. And so that’s another thing to realize that the price of baskets has really soared. And that’s been a good thing. So, the basketmakers can really afford to weave. And the next generation basketmakers who learned in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program can actually make a living as an artist. And I’m proud to say my son, Caleb Hoffman, is an apprentice now, having learned from me as a boy and at all the activities I was helping to organize for the Maine Indian Basket Makers Alliance. And now he’s formally been apprenticing with Jeremy Frey.

Visual: The speaker stands before a different museum case in which are exhibited more baskets. A panel in the case reads “Theresa Secord and Caleb Hoffman”. As she speaks, she references various of the baskets in the case.

Voice of Theresa Secord: Well, this is an area that I’m particularly proud to speak about. [It] represents a case that shows mentor and apprenticeship relationships there for next generation basketmakers. And my son, Caleb Hoffman, was my longtime apprentice and as a boy growing up and attending a lot of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance events, and now he’s working, and been working, with Jeremy Frey for a couple of years. And, so, looking at our case here, there’s a whole evolution of my work over the last, probably, almost a whole 30 years. And then, culminating in some of my more recent pieces, which are really kind of smaller pieces, I have to say, for, you know, the tourist trade that we were talking about earlier. And one is really a neat piece that represents my great-great-grandfather’s business card showing our connection to making and selling baskets here, nearby, at Indian Island. So, this deep family connection of, not just weaving the baskets, but marketing.

Visual: Inset image of an informational panel about the Transforming Traditions exhibit. The panel lists the name of the exhibit in both Penobscot and English and then introductory text. This text and the baskets discussed below can be found in the online exhibit. Click here to visit the online exhibit for Transforming Traditions.

Voice of Theresa Secord: The exhibition in general is, I think, really neat. It’s called Transforming Traditions, or in the Penobscot language, *Speaking Penobscot* *laughing* I had to take my time saying that. And what’s exciting is that, for 30 years or more we’ve had a long-time partnership with the Hudson Museum, where basketmakers, and particularly the next-generation weavers, have been exhibited here. Some of the well-known, younger, next generation basketmakers, such as Jeremy Frey, this would have been the place where his baskets were first shown in the earlier Transforming Traditions exhibition probably 20 years ago, and, also, among the first collected baskets. He would have 1 or 2 in the collections here, and others like him as well, Sarah Sockbeson, etc.

So, and another thing of great note is that we just held the 30th annual basketmakers market sale here at the University of Maine campus. And it’s interesting to note as well that, since the beginning of this event, the Provost or President of the University has come in and given, basically, a land acknowledgment. So, this is Penobscot Territory; this is another island in the Penobscot River, not far from our ancient village where the community is based now, the Penobscot Nation: Indian Island. And, so, doing land acknowledgments, way before it was cool, which is one of the things I’m really thankful for. And a long-time partnership, too, with Gretchen Faulkner, the Director here.

Visual: The speaker references a basket in the case. The basket is barrel-shaped and features a decorative weave that creates vertical stripes on the body. (HM7143)

Voice of Theresa Secord: Okay, and there’s a piece here that I particularly want to point out that I wove about 20 years ago: a barrel basket in the same wooden form and shape as my great-grandmother’s style, woven on her wooden form. But 20 years ago, when I wove that piece in 2006, we were already becoming concerned about the loss of the ash trees with the introduction, that would be coming, of the emerald ash borer beetle, which is now here and  killing all of the ash trees in Maine. So here I’ve done an overlay of cedar bark to try to conserve the ash wood and look at exploring the use of other woods in our basketry. So that’s why that piece is a little bit muted and, you know, just a different… incorporating a new material.

Visual: The speaker references a smaller basket in the case to the left of the barrel basket. This basket is narrow at the base and widens gradually to a rounded upper portion with a ring on the top. It features vertical pale and black stripes and a central decorative portion of teal points and magenta details. (HM9803)

Voice of Theresa Secord: Another piece of note, of course, next to it is my son’s work, Caleb Hoffman, and you can see, you know, his influence from his teacher, Jeremy Frey, with the use of the black and white pattern and the points. And again, that’s only like, I think his second or third basket, maybe his third basket with his mentor. And now he’s kind of branching out and exploring new weaves and styles and shapes on his own.

Visual: The speaker references a basket lower in the case. It is in the form of a small, rectangular tray with rounded corners and contains an image that cannot be seen clearly. (Loaned by Carter Jones Meyer)

Voice of Theresa Secord: This is also a tray basket that I mentioned earlier, that has my great-great-grandfather’s business card in it, and those are really old styles. That piece was woven to mimic a, I believe it was an 1890 card where the basketmakers would be selling and, again, they would have kind of a calling card or their business card within that basket. So I thought it was cool to put in the photograph of my ancestor’s business card.

Visual: The speaker references a basket on a small pedestal in the lower portion of the case. It is small and round with a cover. (Loaned by Carter Jones Meyer)

Voice of Theresa Secord: The little trinket box, here, is more called a button box. That would have been a form that you would learn as one of your first baskets. One of the first baskets I ever wove with my late, great teacher, Madeline Tomer Shay was a button box, on that same wooden form that I wove this one on. And so, a number of these baskets were loaned by my friends, collectors of my work.

Visual: The speaker references a basket in the lower left corner of the case. It is a strawberry in form with a body covered in red curls and a flat, inset cover. (HM9193)

Voice of Theresa Secord: This strawberry is an older form, and that would have been a basket I made, wow, I guess it says 1988. So that’s one of the first baskets I ever made. And I’m happy that it resides here at the Hudson Museum.

Visual: The speaker references a basket behind the strawberry basket. It is a small, circular form with a large, arched handle and is decorated with red curls. (HM5223)

Voice of Theresa Secord: And I see there’s a candy basket that I made with the red points on it, green stripes that have faded a little bit, and it says “Merry Christmas to Apid”, and she was one of my great-aunts. And I guess that was about 30 years ago. Yeah, 1995.

So, I’ve been doing it for a while, and my work is really, again, these are some of my smaller and earlier pieces, but it’s still evolving all the time, like we all are, you know, as artists and as people. Now it’s really fun because I’ll be speaking with Jeremy, who I’m friends with, or my own son, and they’ll say, you know,  “You should look at this,” or “You should try this weave,” or “add,” you know, “something, a new embellishment or something to your basket.” And it’s really fun because you’re almost, you know… I’m really, literally, getting lessons from the next generation of basket makers, and, it’s something you kind of didn’t expect, you know, that there’s always this thought about the inter-generational transfer of knowledge from the elder generations to the next and to the next, but I’ve been doing this long enough, and, you know, some of the apprentices are now just like great artists in their own right, like Jeremy, for example, that they’re sharing tricks of the trade and even professional development ideas and marketing ideas with me. So that knowledge is now coming backwards, you know, to help elders like me, kind of, navigate, you know, the new world of marketing and technology and how they’re selling  out in galleries and, I mean, Jeremy’s out into different, you know, almost international venues now. And so, it’s interesting that that kind of knowledge is coming back to me through that younger generation.

So, it’s been a pleasure to speak about this today.

Visual: A credits card that reads:

Featured Artist: Theresa Secord, Penobscot
Collection images: A. Sky Heller, Hudson Museum Registrar
Project Manager: Gretchen Faulkner, Hudson Museum Director
Video Production & Editing: Samantha Grimwood
Technical Support: Arturo Camacho
This project was funded by a University of Maine Arts Initiative Seed Grant.