Massachusett Tribe Flag Raising and Presentations for Indigenous People's Day

The Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, in partnership with the City of Salem, is proud to announce the launch of "Native Spaces," a groundbreaking audio-based, digital public art project. Initiated by Boston-based artist Sarah Kanouse and Massachusett elder Elizabeth Solomon, this collaborative effort will be officially unveiled on October 11, 2024, at 10 AM in the Salem City Council Chambers.

"Native Spaces" invites the public to experience the rich tapestry of Indigenous history and presence in Salem through an innovative, location-aware digital platform. In particular, the project showcases varied perspectives on land, property, and the historic 1686"deed" that, in the view of the colonial government, transferred the Massachusett village of Naumkeag to English colonists. Colorful, sun-like medallions placed throughout Salem's public spaces serve as gateways to this immersive audio experience.

The launch event on October 11 will feature:

• A panel discussion with project creators

• Distribution of project flyers with a map

• A group listening session for audio virtually located near City Hall

As a born-digital project, "Native Spaces" will continue to evolve. Additional programming planned for winter 2024-2025 will offer audience members the opportunity to record their own audio reflections about Native Spaces in Salem which may be incorporated into the project's evolving sonic tapestry.

Useful Plants of Pioneer Village—Food, Medicine, and More

An amazing number of the plants at Pioneer Village are nutritious food, or good medicine, and/or useful in other ways. Some are native and were already here when the settlers came, others were introduced. In this fun and informative walk you will learn about these wonderful plants and some of their uses, whether they are wild and weedy or cultivated and tame. Appreciating the useful plants around us helps us to treat plants and the environment with care and respect, so they are here for future generations. You will leave with new-found awe for our plant neighbors and the many gifts they offer us!

Meet at the wooden footbridge to Pioneer Village.

Register Here!

Bio:

Iris Weaver is a Bioregional Herbalist and Foraging Instructor. She leads plant walks locally and teaches classes and workshops on herbalism, herbal body care, and herbal crafts. Her emphasis is on sustainable uses of local plants.

Earlier Event: September 14

Community Beading Program

Later Event: November 16

Community Beading Program

Let's Create Together!

Join Indigenous Artist And Massachusett Tribe Historian/Educator Thomas Green For An Interactive Bead Looming Program.

Saturday Sept 14, 1:00 to 4:30

*Free Event * Supplies Provided*

This is one session in a series to be completed by December 2024. It is hoped, but not required, that participants will attend multiple sessions. At the end of the program Thomas Green will use a sample of each individual attendees completed works to create a shared piece that will be on public display.

Click here to register!

Additional Sessions will be held:

November 16, 1-4:30

December 14, 1-4:30

For more information email epeterson@salem.com

Hosted by the City of Salem Pioneer Village

Tansy has been used for thousands of years to make medicine, repel insects, flavor food, and preserve the dead. First brought to New England by English settlers in the 1630s, it became a common sight at funerals, sometimes stuffed into coffins before burial.

Join historian Dan Marshall as he explores the wide variety of medicinal, insecticide, and culinary uses of tansy recorded in seventeenth-century American and European sources. Lend a hand as Dan makes some tinctures, oils, and teas using this versatile weed.

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Dan Marshall has shared his love of history with the public for 25 years. He is currently a Salem Historical Society Board Member and the Director of Education & Interpretation with the Lexington Historical Society.

While the Salem witch trials ended in May 1693, it took the community generations to recover from the trauma and loss. Some residents moved away while others changed the spelling of their family name. Many participated in legislative efforts to restore innocency to the victims, and others sought to knit the community back together through healing marriages between families of accusers and their victims. The collective pain and shame of the trials meant that Salem would not build a memorial to the victims until their 300th anniversary in 1992. It would take 25 more years before the city would memorialize the execution site at Proctor’s Ledge on Gallows Hill.

This event is free, but space is limited. Tickets may be reserved here.

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Emerson "Tad" Baker is a professor of History at Salem State University and has previously served as vice provost and dean of the graduate school. He is the award-winning author or co-author of six books on the history and archaeology of early New England, including A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience, and The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England. Baker has served as consultant and on-camera expert for historical documentaries and TV shows for networks ranging from PBS and TLC to Smithsonian and the History Channel. He is currently working on a book on the aftermath of the Salem witch trials.

Please join Meg Nichols (she/her) and Joey Phoenix (they/them) of the Mycelium Network for a Death Cafe on Thursday May 2nd from 6-8pm at the Charter Street Cemetery Welcome Center. Light refreshments will be provided.

Death Cafe is an opportunity for people to gather, drink tea, and talk about their experiences with death and grief. It is a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. Please note that it is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counseling session.

Please note that RSVP's are required to attend as we have limited capacity. Click here to RSVP.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at mycel.network@gmail.com 

About Meg Nichols

Meg Nichols (she/her) is a Salem-based artist, owner of Painted Lady Sign Co. and Mortuary Science student at North Shore Community College. She is also a funeral director / embalmer apprentice, and trained death doula. She is passionate about death care education, advocacy and removing the stigma around addressing this inevitable part of life.

About Joey Phoenix

Joey Phoenix (they/them) is a transfae artist, performer, and intuitive energy worker. Grief work is at the center of both their creative and magical practice. They are also the lead organizer of the Camberville based mutual aid network the Mycelium Network. 

The Puritans of New England were a people very well acquainted with death and their idiosyncratic relationship with it led to a rich funeral culture that persisted for years after the collapse of the Puritan movement. A ritual that involved copious alcohol, but no sermons, the 17th Century funeral is at once very similar and completely different from the funerals of today. Join Carl Schultz as he walks through the history of the colonial funeral, burials, and why someone might need a “double-coffin”.

This event is free, but space is limited. Reservations may be made here

Visit the Witch House to see local artist Nick Demakes create an original painting as part of the Salem So Sweet festival. Free and open to the public, no reservations required!

Gentlemen Bat artist Nick Demakes is a graduate of Monserrat College of Art, with a BFA in illustration, and paints his animal portraits with coffee and acrylic paint. Nick is featured in the Peabody Essex Museum’s Bat exhibit and has prints available locally in Salem as well as New Orleans, Buffalo, New York, and Oregon.

Historian and storyteller Rory O'Brien reads a a selection of classic ghost stories as the sun sets in the historic Witch House. The event is free, but space is limited, so advance reservations will be required to attend.

Reservations are available here

The early English in Massachusetts Bay frowned upon the celebration of Christmas. However, some of the traditional plants used in England for decorations were being made into medicines. Come join Dan Marshall as he discusses how mistletoe, holly and pine were being used to treat a variety of ailments in the 17th & 18th centuries. Dan will explore both European and American colonial sources that shed light on how this knowledge crossed the Atlantic and how it was put into practice here.

Space is limited. Reservations are required. Reservations may be made here.

Dan Marshall has shared his love of history with the public for over 20 years. He is currently a Salem Historical Society Board Member and the Director of Education & Interpretation with the Lexington Historical Society.

Join Epoch Preservation for an early evening stroll through Charter Street Cemetery, where they will demonstrate how to clean a slate stone using D2 Biological Solution and answer your gravestone conservation questions.

Space is limited. Reservations are required. Spots may be reserved here.

Professors Donna Seger and Emerson “Tad” Baker of the Salem State University History Department discuss the impact of the Protestant Reformation on death and funeral customs, in 16th, 17th, and 18th century Europe and America, with specific reference to the Old Burying Ground on Charter Street.

The event is free and online. Tickets may be reserved here