Indigenous Peoples' Day: Interwoven

Free Admission is Generously Supported By Linda Cabot And Ed Anderson

Monday
October 13, 2025
11 am - 5 pm
Throughout the Museum

Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day with community and family through art-making, storytelling, and more as we come together, learning how we may weave our individual identities into a whole that honors all of its diverse parts. We are stronger when we are woven together.

The Gardner Museum is honored to collaborate with Erin Genia (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate), Hawk Henries (Nipmuck), Yvonne Peterson (Chehalis), and Elizabeth James Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag) to acknowledge and respect Indigenous wisdom and traditions that strengthen communities.

Photo Credit: Billy Weiss

Program

Hawk Henries Performance
11 AM — Living Room
Join special guest Hawk Henries, artist, composer, and flute musician of the Chaubunagungamaug band of Nipmuc, for a performance weaving together music, storytelling, and a note of humor. Hawk expertly crafts Eastern Woodlands flutes through ancestral and contemporary techniques. His transformative performances create contemplative spaces for unity and meaningful reflection on how we each have the capacity to make change in the world.

Collaborative Art-Making
11 AM – 4 PM — Bertucci Education Studio
Enjoy a collaborative art-making activity developed by artists Yvonne Peterson (Chehalis) and Elizabeth James Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag). Weave different natural materials into one large communal artwork with the guidance of these two renowned artists as you learn about both historic and contemporary Indigenous basketry weaving practices.

Handel & Hayden Society Youth Choruses Ambassador Ensemble
1 PM — Calderwood Hall
Working with Thea Hopkins, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe of Martha's Vineyard and a graduate of Berklee College of Music, the Handel & Haydn Youth Choruses Ambassador Ensemble will incorporate authentic Indigenous musical traditions into a performance in Calderwood Hall, performing okâwîmâw askîy (Mother Earth) by Sherryl Sewepagaham and Vision Chant and Ambe by Andrew Balfour.

Honoring the Remnants for the Future Conversation
1:30 PM — Calderwood Hall
The Gardner contains only two Native American made objects, both woven baskets: one from the Pacific Northwest (possibly Makah, Quinault, or Quileute) and one from Southeastern Alaska (Tlingit). Moderated by Ellen Promise, who cared for these objects in her time as a conservator at the Gardner Museum, this conversation brings together Chehalis elder Yvonne Peterson, a contemporary weaver from the Olympic Peninsula; Aquinnah Wampanoag artist Elizabeth James Perry; and Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate artist Erin Genia. Join us as these panelists reflect upon the institutional care of Indigenous objects, the shared traditions of cultural practices, and how we may learn from the remnants of the past.

About the Artists and Speakers

A light brown skinned man with short greying hair and goatee, wearing a yellow top, wearing a gold bird necklace, blowing into a large, wooden flute

A white woman with short grey and dark hair, wearing a large red beaded necklace and a sweatshirt with native American art, holding her hands upward.

A woman with long dark hair wearing an embroidered vest with a purple blouse and dark pants standing in front of large dried plants outdoors.

A group of youth standing in front of a large screen with song books in their hands with an adult conducting them and another adult playing the piano

A white woman with long, straight dark hair wearing white slacks, a black shirt and long black, opened sweater standing in front of art pieces

Woman with dark hair pulled into a bun with a brown shirt looking directly at camera

Photo courtesy of the artist

Hawk Henries is a member of the Chaubunagungamaug band of Nipmuck, a people indigenous to what is now southern New England. He has been composing original flute music and making flutes using only hand tools and fire for over 30 years.Henries is committed to music as a traditional art form and as a vehicle for building bridges of communication and mutual respect. He teaches and performs in a wide variety of settings: indigenous and international art festivals, museums, concert venues, powwows, educational settings from kindergarten through university level, flute making workshops, and private family gatherings.

Website: https://hawkhenries.com/
Instagram: @hawkhenries
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hawkhenriesflutes

Photo courtesy of the artist

Yvonne Annette Toon Nee Mu Sh Dupuis Peterson (Chehalis) invites us all to “sit beside” each other and learn—the way her mother showed her. Peterson was taught to work hard for family, community, and self in the prairie and river lands of her people. Her ancestors are woven into her consciousness and actions, she breathes their same breath and walks the paths they created for her generations ago. It is weaving, in fact, that forms the basis of her cultural understanding. Weaving baskets connects her to the Chehalis’s cultured natural world.Peterson seeks to “transform the past into the future through a prism of caring.” She is a political scientist, educator, and intergenerational cultural awakener who weaves together traditional and academic methods at home and at the Evergreen State University.

Photo courtesy of the artist

2023 National Endowment of the Arts Heritage Fellow Elizabeth James-Perry is an enrolled Aquinnah Wampanoag whaling descendant who engages with Northeastern Woodlands cultural expressions, primarily in sculptural wampum carving, wampum weaving, and naturally dyed textiles. Her work explores the connections between art, sustainability, and Native identity and sovereignty, maritime traditions, and restorative Native gardening. James-Perry has a Marine Science degree from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and a certificate in Digital Tribal Stewardship from Washington State University.

Website: https://elizabethjamesperry.com/
IG: elizabethjamesperry
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethJamesPerry/

Photo courtesey of Handel and Haydn Society/Brett Pond

The Handel and Haydn Society Youth Ambassador Ensemble (grades 7-12) is for singers who are passionate about building community through collaborative performance. The singers in this ensemble are members of the High School Soloist program and/or are HHYC leaders. The ensemble performs a diverse selection of music from the Baroque and Classical periods, along with spirituals, jazz, folk songs, a cappella, and contemporary choral repertoire.

Photo courtesy of the speaker

Ellen Promise received her M.S. in art conservation with a specialty in objects from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation in 2012. She recently concluded an 8 year stint as Associate Objects Conservator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and she is currently building a private conservation practice serving the greater New England area. Previous work has included the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Staffordshire Hoard Project at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in England, the Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Lab, Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and Historic New England. She serves on the boards for the New England Conservation Association and the Objects Specialty Group through the American Institute for Conservation. Her passion is building ties across fields and communicating complex conservation stories in an accessible way.

Photo courtesy of the artist

Erin Genia, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and community organizer specializing in Indigenous arts and culture. Genia’s work in these areas is focused on amplifying the powerful presence of Indigenous peoples on the occupied lands of America in the arts, sciences and public realm to invoke an evolution of thought and practice that is aligned with the cycles of the natural world and the potential of humanity.

Erin has an M.S. in Art, Culture and Technology from MIT, an M.P.A. in Tribal Governance from the Evergreen State College and studied at Institute of American Indian Arts. She was awarded the 2021 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant from Mass Cultural Council, the 2019 MIT Solve Indigenous Communities Fellowship and the AAF/ Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts in 2018. In 2021, she was named one of the ARTery 25, “Artists Of Color Transforming The Cultural Landscape” of Boston.

Website: https://www.eringenia.studio/
Instagram: @emgenia
X: eringenia

Film

Indigenous Perspectives: The Gardner Museum

Watch a short film that documents a conversation among Elizabeth Solomon (Massachusett at Ponkapoag), Erin Genia (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota), and Mar Parrilla (Afrotaíno Borikua), three local Indigenous cultural workers, on historical museum practices, manifestations of settler colonialism, cultural landscapes, and the potential of art in decolonization.

Amplifier Projects at the Gardner highlight change-makers working towards social justice through the arts.

Tickets

Admission is free, but advance reservations are required. Tickets will sell out and will not be available at the door. Reserve your ticket online, by clicking the Get Tickets button above.

Questions about accessibility? Please call the box office at 617 278 5156.

Free admission generously supported by Linda Cabot and Ed Anderson

Free days are supported in part by the Wallace Minot Leonard Foundation, the Board of Advisors 2022 Fund for Access, and Thomas G. Stemberg Charitable Foundation.

Education and community programs receive support from the Vertex Foundation, Rowland Foundation, the Yawkey Foundation, The Beker Foundation, Liberty Mutual Foundation,

The Hamilton Company Charitable Foundation, Thomas Anthony Pappas Charitable Foundation, and Janet Burke Mann Foundation.

Studio activities are generously sponsored by the Polly Thayer Starr Charitable Trust.

The Neighborhood Salon is supported in part by the Anne Hawley Fund for Programs, the Polly Thayer Starr Charitable Trust, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

The Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.