Wampanoag Heritage Day

Join us for the fifth annual Wampanoag Heritage Day, a fun-filled celebration of Wampanoag culture at Heritage featuring a variety of activities from 10 am-2 pm, including:

• 11:30-12:15: Watch a performance by the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers of eastern social songs and dances (with audience participation encouraged!)
• Make a wampum pendant to take home by drilling a hole in a quahog shell to make a necklace pendant with native educator Darius Coombs
• Craft a corn husk doll to take home.
• Explore the wetu, a reproduction of a historic dwelling, the mush8n, a reproduction dug-out canoe, and the Three Sisters demonstration garden, all created in collaboration with local Wampanoag partners
• View and learn about historic Wampanoag artifacts found on the land that is now Heritage Museums & Gardens
• Visit a native artisan to shop for handcrafted contemporary wampum jewelry

All activities are free with museum admission or membership.

The Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers are a group of musicians, educators, and artisan from the tribal communities of Mashpee on Cape Cod, Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard, and Herring Pond in Bourne. Their performances of eastern social songs and dances have both educated and entertained audiences of all ages in museums, schools, and various multicultural events. They dress in traditional clothing and their songs are accompanied by a water drum and handcrafted rattles. They encourage audience participation and prefer to dance with the people instead of for the people.

In addition to their performances at Heritage, they have appeared at Jacob’s Pillow, the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, The Peabody Essex Museum, Cambridge Arts Council, The Mary Baker Library, Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Mashpee Powwow, Aptucxet Trading Post Museum, Stonehill College, Brown University, and more. They have toured throughout New England and as far away as Bermuda, Hawaii and the United Kingdom. For three years they have participated in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, heading up the First Light Float and delivering the televised land acknowledgement.

Darius Coombs is a citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe and is the Cultural Outreach Coordinator for the Mashpee Wampanoag Education Department. Darius is the former Director of the Wampanoag Indigenous Program at Plimoth Patuxet Museums for over 30 years. Over his career Darius worked with Smithsonian, History Channel, National Geographic, and Scholastic. His teaching of Wampanoag and other Indigenous cultures in the history of the northeast is recognized throughout the country. He has presented at conferences, colleges, historical societies, museums, indigenous institutes, and all grades and levels of learning in North America. Darius is also the recipient of the 2016 New England Museum Association Award for Excellence and the 2021 Bay State Legacy award.