Julia Marden | |
---|---|
Born | 1962 (age 60–61) |
Nationality | Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, American |
Known for | Textile art, basketry |
Julia Marden (born 1962 [1] ) is an American artist based in Vermont. [2] [3] A member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe, Marden specializes in traditional Wampanoag arts and crafts, including basket and mat twining, [4] wampum belts, [5] [6] and painting. [7]
Marden was born in 1962 [1] and raised in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and also spent parts of her childhood in Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard. [3] [7] Her father was a carpenter, and as a child she would use his wood shavings to make her own art. [7] She also made collages from found objects. [7]
Marden began learning customary crafts in the early 1990s, from Native American staff, when she began working in the Wampanoag Indian Program at Plimoth Plantation. [2] [3] [7] Specifically, Marden learned twining, a type of weaving technique which involves wrapping fibers around one another without using a loom. [8] She had created 63 twined pieces by 2012. [9] It takes Marden about two months of 40-hour weeks to twine a bag with commercial cordage. [8] For more historic twining, which takes longer, Marden uses cattails, bulrushes, and cornhusks, among other plants. Porcupine quills or moose hair may also be worked into the designs. [8]
Marden has also created miniature dolls, which she calls Eninuog, which represent Native people and the clothing they wore at the time of European contact. [2] [8]
Marden has her own studio and store in Ryegate, Vermont, named Bluejay Visions. [7] She has shown her work at the Atrium Gallery in One Capitol Hill, [10] the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, the National Heritage Museum, [11] the Rhode Island Department of Administration, [9] the Robbins Museum, [2] and the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts. [12]
In 2022, Marden was one of eight Wampanoag artists profiled in Lee Roscoe's book, Wampanoag Art for the Ages: Traditional and Transitional. [4] [13]
In 2023, Marden created a turkey feather mantle she had twined by hand, making it the first-known such mantle created post-European contact 400 years earlier. Marden called it "most likely the most important piece" she will ever make. It will be shown at the Aquinnah Cultural Center in 2024. [3]
Marden has one daughter, Leah Llanes, who learned to twine at age 6; Llanes' daughter has also learned to twine. [8]
Marden was given the name Bluejay Weaving in a Wampanoag naming ceremony, in honor of her craftsmanship and the fierceness with which blue jays protect their young. [7]
Marden has resided in Vermont since at least 2015, [2] but has also previously lived in Connecticut. [9]
Cape Cod is a hook-shaped peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the smaller adjacent Chappaquiddick Island, which is usually connected to the Vineyard. The two islands have sometimes been separated by storms and hurricanes, which last occurred from 2007 to 2015. It is the 58th largest island in the U.S., with a land area of about 96 square miles (250 km2), and the third-largest on the East Coast, after Long Island and Mount Desert Island. Martha's Vineyard constitutes the bulk of Dukes County, which also includes the Elizabeth Islands and the island of Nomans Land.
Aquinnah is a town located on the western end of Martha's Vineyard island, Massachusetts. From 1870 to 1997, the town was incorporated as Gay Head. At the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 439. Aquinnah is known for its beautiful clay cliffs and natural serenity, as well as its historical importance to the native Wampanoag people. In 1965, Gay Head Cliffs were designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.
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Tisbury is a town located on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,815 at the 2020 census.
The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island. Their territory historically includes the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
The Massachusett language is an Algonquian language of the Algic language family that was formerly spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and southeastern Massachusetts. In its revived form, it is spoken in four communities of Wampanoag people. The language is also known as Natick or Wôpanâak (Wampanoag), and historically as Pokanoket, Indian or Nonantum.
Weetamoo, also referred to as Weethao, Weetamoe, Wattimore, Namumpum, and Tatapanunum, was a Pocasset Wampanoag Native American Chief. She was the sunksqua, or female sachem, of Pocasset tribe, which occupied contemporary Tiverton, Rhode Island in 1620. The Pocasset, which she led, was one of groups of the Wampanoag.
Appeal to the Great Spirit is a 1908 equestrian statue by Cyrus Dallin, located in front of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It portrays a Native American on horseback facing skyward, his arms spread wide in a spiritual request to the Great Spirit. It was the last of Dallin's four prominent sculptures of Indigenous people known as The Epic of the Indian, which also include A Signal of Peace (1890), The Medicine Man (1899), and Protest of the Sioux (1904).
The Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing (CLAMS) library network is a non-profit consortium of 35 member libraries and 38 locations throughout Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. Since it was founded in 1991, the number of items available has grown from 568,000 in 1991 to over 1.6 million in 2022. Deliveries of materials between member libraries and other library networks in Massachusetts through an interlibrary loan program are made by the Massachusetts Library System located in Waltham . The network uses the Koha Integrated Library System (ILS) for staff function workflows: acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, ILL, and serials and Aspen Discovery for their patron's Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). The libraries provide access to reference databases, digital libraries, free music online, museum passes, genealogy, workshops, and other free services that vary from each location.
Gladys A. Widdiss was an American tribal elder, Wampanoag historian and potter. Widdis served as the President of the Aquinnah Wampanoag of Gay Head from 1978 until 1987. She then served as the vice chairman of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal council for many years.
Jessie Little Doe Baird is a linguist known for her efforts to revive the Wampanoag (Wôpanâak) language. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2010.
Linda Jeffers Coombs is an author and historian from the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). Coombs is the former program director of the Aquinnah Cultural Center.
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) (Wampanoag: Âhqunah Wôpanâak) is a federally recognized tribe of Wampanoag people based in the town of Aquinnah on the southwest tip of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, United States. The tribe hosts an annual Cranberry Day celebration.
Legal forms of gambling in the U.S. state of Massachusetts include casinos, sports betting, parimutuel wagering on horse racing, the Massachusetts Lottery, and charitable gaming. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission regulates commercial operations under state jurisdiction.
Amos Peters Smalley (1877–1961) was a Native American whaler, fisherman, and fish peddler.
Joel Hiacoomes was one of the first Native American students at Harvard University.
Helen Edith Vanderhoop Manning Murray was a Native American historian and writer and enrolled citizen of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe. She is known for her book Moshup's Footsteps: The Wampanoag Nation, Gay Head/Aquinnah: the People of First Light (2001), as a tribal elder, and as serving as education director for her tribe.
Donald F. Malonson was Chief of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) from 1951-2003. In 1951, his uncle Harrison Vanderhoop, also known as Chief No-Ho-No, nominated Donald as his successor. Malonson symbolically led his people for the next 52 years.
Elizabeth James-Perry is an American artist and restoration ecologist. A member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, she carried on the indigenous tradition of scrimshawing after learning about indigenous scrimshawing from her mother and Wampanoag clothing during a trip to Europe. She creates wampum beads and Wampanoag textiles and is a 2023 National Heritage Fellow.