Free Admission to PEM for Indigenous Peoples' Day

On Indigenous Peoples' Day, we honor the sovereignty, resilience and immense contributions of Native Americans. Join us for a free day of special programming to respectfully acknowledge and celebrate Indigenous communities.

Artist Presentation with Elizabeth James Perry
Noon–1:30 pm | Main Atrium

2023 NEA Heritage award recipient Elizabeth James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag) joins us for a presentation of her artistic practice. Her work engages with Northeastern Woodlands Native cultural expressions, primarily in sculptural forms of wampum shell-carving and bead-making with its connection to identity and sovereignty, maritime traditions and restorative Native gardening.

She is a culture bearer, lecturer, educator and plant walk leader in addition to textile, wampum and quill work. You can find her work on display in On This Ground: Being and Belonging in America.

Film Screenings: We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân
11:30 am–1 pm, 1–2:30 pm Morse Auditorium
84 minutes long

We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân, a documentary by award-winning filmmaker Anne Makepeace, tells the story of the return of the Wampanoag language, a language that was silenced for more than a century. At the heart of the film is Jessie Little Doe Baird (Mashpee Wampanoag), who finds her way from the tiny enclave of Mashpee, Massachusetts, to becoming a celebrated linguist honored with a MacArthur ‘genius’ award in 2010 for her unprecedented work in bringing her own Wampanoag language back home.

We Still Live Here interweaves the present-day story of Jessie and other Wampanoags reclaiming their language with historical events that silenced the language and obliterated much of their culture – epidemics, missionary pressures, land loss and the indenture of Native children. Ruth Lingford’s powerful animation illuminates and deepens the emotional impact of these devastating events, even as the contemporary story brings a hopeful vision of the future.