Historic Wapánahkəyak

“Wαpánahkəyak” translates to “the Dawnland”—the regions of northern New England, the Canadian Maritime provinces, Newfoundland Island, and Quebec south of the Saint Lawrence River. These are the Wabanaki Confederacy’s homelands, currently consisting of five principal Tribal Nations: Panawáhpskek, Peskotomuhkatiyik, Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik, and Abenaki.

Sanborn recontextualizes historic photographs of Indigenous Peoples taken during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Euro-American anthropologists sought to document the “vanishing” race and cultures of Indigenous North Americans whose lifeways were threatened by assimilation policies enacted by the United States and Canadian governments. Sanborn honors the subjects in these photographs by reimagining their likenesses in digital collages to illustrate Wabanaki cultural continuity, epistemology, oral history, and spirituality.

Danikah Chartier, a first-generation descendant of the Eskasoni Mi’kmaw Nation, organized the exhibition as part of her work as Historic New England’s 2023-2024 Northern Region Indigenous Community Liaison and Researcher in support of the Recovering New England’s Voices initiative.

The exhibition and related programming are made possible by the generous support of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation.