Generational Trauma, 2020
Frances Soctomah
Video
Generational Trauma is the articulation of harms associated with the impacts of environmental pollution on generations of Wabanaki and a call for water restoration efforts for the health of present and future generations. I focus specifically on consumption advisories around traditional foods and visually spotlight the connection between the health of our waters and the health of our porpoise, freshwater fish, and moose relatives. Conversations with my parents are incorporated to emphasize the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and health.
About Frances
Frances Soctomah is an artist who belongs to the Peskotomuhkatiyik – the People Who Spear Pollock. Known in English as the Passamaquoddy, they are part of a larger family called the Waponahkiyik or Wabanaki – the People of the Dawnland – who claim the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, and Abenaki as their own.
Raised at Motahkomikuk, Frances is one of eleven children who comes from a long line of Passamaquoddy artistry. Her journey as an artist began at the age of seven when her grandmother, Molly Neptune Parker, began teaching her to make brown ash and sweetgrass baskets. Working at her grandmother’s side, Frances learned to bring to life fancy baskets in styles passed down to her family through generations of weavers while listening to Molly’s stories of growing up in Motahkomikuk.
Carried by the teachings of her grandmother, Frances honors the power of stories to connect us across generations and life journeys by using storytelling as the foundation for her creative practice. She continues to practice traditional Wabanaki artforms, maintaining a direct connection with her ancestors’ teachings while moving her hands the way they once did, and engages digital and non-digital artforms in the storytelling process. The tools she engages in a creative work are dependent on the spirit of the story she is connecting to.
She is currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in Intermedia at the University of Maine.
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