Penobscot Birchbark Artist to Build Wigwam at the Hudson Museum
Contact: Gretchen Faulkner, 581-1901; Barry Dana, 643-2595
ORONO — An authentic birchbark wigwam soon will be part of the University of Maine’s Hudson Museum Maine Indian Gallery in the Collins Center for the Arts.
Former Penobscot Nation Chief and master birchbark artist Barry Dana is coordinating the building of a birchbark wigwam with children from the Penobscot Nation Boys and Girls Club.
Most of the work on the wigwam will be between Monday, Aug. 2 and Wednesday, August 4 at the museum. It will become the centerpiece of the museum’s Maine Indian Gallery.
In a culturally traditional fashion, Dana will pass on to the children this ancient art form. During construction, children from the Penobscot Nation Boys and Girls Club will learn about how the materials — birchbark, spruce root and pitch — are gathered and used. Visitors are welcome to stop by to watch the construction and learn about the tradition.
The birchbark wigwam was central to Maine Indian life, providing shelter and structure. Bark from the paper birch tree was the fabric of life in the region, offering materials to make everything from containers, to rain gear, to canoes. Maine Wabanaki material culture traditions have been passed down from generation to generation through hands-on learning and working with others, perfecting each step in the process until they can complete each one successfully.
Dana, a former Penobscot chief, is pleased the museum will add the wigwam to its collection, and says it will strengthen the relationships among those living in the Penobscot homeland today.
“To me, the wigwam is a teaching tool from my ancestors,” he adds. Building a wigwam reinforces his own connections to the past, Dana says. “It gives me a chance to talk with other people who value it. We’ve always said these things are important and we should continue them.”
The museum, with assistance from the UMaine new media program, will film and document steps in the wigwam construction process, perhaps the first time the entire wigwam construction process has ever been documented. The museum will add the video to an existing multimedia kiosk in the Maine Indian Gallery and to the museum website, according to director Gretchen Faulkner.
The wigwam will be nearly full size, at about 8.5 feet in diameter and 7 feet high. Its design will draw on research on historic structures and archaeological evidence. Dana says wigwams can be different sizes, as small as a camping tent or as large as a gymnasium, depending upon their purpose.
Children and adults will be able to enter the structure and move around in it. Objects that would be associated with the wigwam — snowshoes, birchbark containers and baskets, for instance — also will be available for visitors to explore. The structure will be the only indoor wigwam in the state, according to Faulkner.
The project is funded by grants from the Maine Arts Commission, the Maine Humanities Council and the Renee Minsky Fund.
The Hudson Museum is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m., and Saturdays from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. It is closed Sundays and holidays. More information is available on the museum website, or by calling the museum at (207) 581-1901.