How do people occupy land and call it their home? How are these stories of occupation told? How, today, do we deal with difficult histories?
These are the questions explored by photographer Sandra Matthews and Indigenous activist Dave Brule in their powerful presentation.
They asked: what happens when something as fundamental as land is taken from one people by another group of people? Centuries later, can we reconcile these peoples' conflicting versions of histories?
Sandra's evocative photographs from her new book, Occupying Massachusetts: Layers of History on Indigenous Land, trace the landscapes of Massachusetts - the places where Indigenous people once lived, and still live, and places where there is only left a trace. Through her images, we begin to see differently the land and its built structures.
David Brule, who authored an essay in Occupying Massachusetts. will talk about a model for moving forward, annd about the groundbreaking Nolumbeka Project, of which he is president.
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Sandra Matthews' photographs are in public collections including that of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, the Harvard University Art Museums, Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, and the Women and Photography International Archive at Yale. In addition to Occupying Massachusetts, she has authored the photobook Present Moments (2020) and co-authored a cultural history, Pregnant Pictures (2000). She is founding editor of the Trans Asia Photography Review and associate professor emerita at Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts. Her website is sandramatthewsprojects.com
David Brule is president of the Nolumbeka Project, which works to preserve early Indigenous sites in the Connecticut River Valley, hosts Indigenous presenters sharing their cultures and histories, and serves as a bridge between cultures and past and future generations. David is of Nehantic, Narragansett, and Huron/Wendat descent. He is a council member of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association.
Occupying Massachusetts: Layers of History on Indigenous Land, by Sandra Matthews with texts by David Brule and Suzanne Gardinier (George F. Thompson Publishing, 2022), is available from the publisher and by ordering it from your favourite bookstore. In the Boston area, you can buy your copy from the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge and the Museum of Fine Arts.
NOTE: The views expressed are those of the presenters and not necessarily those of the Partnership of Historic Bostons.
Image: On Nipmuc and Pocumtuck homelands. Overlooking the Connecticut/Kwinitekw River from Mount Sugarloaf, also known as Wequamps. (c) Sandra Matthews, 2020