Kohkóhkhahso

​The barred owl is a messenger and protector of the people. They play a significant role in our culture by warning and calling out when danger is near, providing us with future knowledge of what is to come. In this piece, the barred owl gifts the “unidentified Penobscot boy” visions of impending horrors: the timber industry.​

–Lokotah Sanborn

Some of the original owners of the houses that Historic New England preserves built their wealth as millwrights. Joseph Sayward (Sayward-Wheeler House in York, Maine) and Edward Gilman Jr. (Gilman Garrison House in Exeter, New Hampshire) were two of the individuals who specifically erected sawmills within Wabanaki territory. As a result, the lands were deforested, the rivers were polluted with sawdust, and dams that powered the mills prevented fish passage. This exploitation of natural resources fed colonial greed but deeply harmed the environment and Wabanaki lifeways. ​

–Danikah Chartier

​Photomontage

Inkjet on glossy paper, 13 x 19

2023​