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Entwined

Photo Caption:

Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty and the Sea

On Exhibit April 20, 2024

Stillman Building

Curated by Akeia de Barros Gomes

Kutah/Okun (the Atlantic Ocean) and its tributaries, with cycles of ebb and flow, push and pull, and trauma and healing forever connect the histories, cultures, peoples and legacies of African societies and kingdoms to the Sovereign Indigenous Nations of Turtle Island (North America). Like waterways, contact between Africans and the Indigenous Nations of the Dawnland (New England) attests to the power of ancestors, the circularity of time, and fundamental cycles of death and rebirth.

Entwined centers maritime histories in Indigenous, African, and African American worldviews and experiences. Unraveling the threads of existing narratives of the history of the Dawnland, Indigenous dispossession, and racialized slavery, Entwined is rooted in voices and histories which have been silent or silenced. It explores the enduring legacies, strength and resilience of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and African-descended peoples of the Dawnland. Foregrounding ancestral and descendant voices, Entwined re-weaves a narrative of two maritime cultures whose histories are forever interwoven in stories of freedom, sovereignty and the sea.

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