On a sunny May morning in Ashfield, Mass., a gathering of people circles a 15-foot white pine log lined with smoking coals. In a few days through a 24-hour sustained burn, it will become a mishoon, the Nipmuc word for dugout canoe.
Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines Jr. advises the young stewards and welcomes questions from the onlooking crowd.
“Tookish, in our language, what it means is to wake up,” said StrongBearHeart, the tribal historical preservation officer for the Hassanamisco Tribe of the Nipmuc Nation and founder of No Loose Braids. “What we’re talking about is actually being able to awaken a traditional skill that has been embedded, that hasn’t been lost. It’s sleeping in a way.”
Through a land partnership with The Double Edge Theater, No Loose Braids has found a home in Ashfield. StrongBearHeart — who acknowledged Darius Coombs, Mashpee Wampanoag, as his teacher in this traditional watercraft — says events like these are a way to form a relationship with the town and encourage curiosity among residents.
“This was kind of a welcoming to the town to come and get to know us a little bit more, but also a time for us to burn out a dugout canoe with our community and have one of our own mishoons right here on Ashfield Lake,” he said.
Alexis Fedorjaczenko, Ashfield’s town clerk, says the collaboration started with a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) to fund a public art project which will include a lighted boat parade in the fall. Ashfield’s cultural council thought to invite No Loose Braids to burn a mishoon to be included in the parade.
“…the thinking was mainly to honor the history of watercraft in the region and the people who have been stewarding this land for centuries. And Andre was really excited about doing another mishoon burn, and also really excited about the possibility of collaborating with the town,” Fedorjaczenko added.
As No Loose Braids continues its cultural revitalization work, StrongBearHeart says navigating relationships with municipal authorities or other post-colonial organizations like land trusts can be challenging, but it's necessary to move forward.
“You know, everything that we do here in this lifetime — that we're in right now — is for the next seven generations,” he said.