Sea Shanties and SEED Stories
Finishing up the gardens at the Pendleton House for the first Blue Hill Maritime Heritage Festival, we are thinking about plants that were considered important enough for early settlers to bring with them across the sea. The plants will comprise a collection of tea and medicinal plants tended in these early colonial ‘medicine chests’.
In tandem with exploring what plants arrived here, we are considering the severance of the landscape for the raw materials that became the foundations for colonialism. What systems were set in place that still exist today? What are the long term social impacts experienced by indigenous populations in the Penobscot region as well as the Caribbean and African regions? How is indigenous practice informing the healing of these lands?
Featuring custom painted Maritime Chests and Historical Signs by Robert Jarvis Leonard III, the garden installation will include crafts from Indian Island by Penobscot linguist Carol Dana and a selection of Haitian sculptures that offer a poignant reflection of the backwaters of (im)mobilities. An interactive component will invite visitors to share stories of their own relationship with plants and migrations.
Through the festival, songs of the sea will be sung both in the gardens and along the sea across the street at Emerson park. Bring an instrument and join in this Cèilidh style gathering.
Recent Events:
Saturday, May 18th, 11am – 3pm
Pierce Pond in Penobscot
Join
the Penobscot Alewife Committee, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Blue Hill
Heritage Trust and Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries for the 2nd Annual
Bagaduce Alewife Celebration!
Learn about the native plant restoration work being done at Pierces with the SEED Barn & Blue Hill Heritage Trust.
Demonstrations on sowing native seeds, transplanting seedlings and
providing habitat will compliment an art installation of cast paper
butterflies. The public is invited to participate in this community
restoration project by learning about the ecologies along the land water
interface. Add your voice by composing messages to wildlife who use
this passage, and bring home an assortment of native grass seeds to
plant in your own yard!
Guided tours of future restoration locations will take place on on Parker Pond (9:30am) and Walkers Pond (1pm)
Explore the Water!
Catch alewives to make observations, view a freshwater fish observation tank, taste smoked fish, and much more! There will even be a Virtual Reality set up so you can “swim with the fishes” through Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries!
For more information, please contact Blue Hill Heritage Trust at 374-5118 or info@bluehillheritagetrust.org
Participate in the Community Restoration of Pierce Pond through March by sowing native seeds specific to the river and lakeshore plant communities observed around Pierce Pond and gathered from the research in the Natural Landscapes of Maine guide published by the Maine Heritage Fund. Seeds are best sown at home, and we invite community members to establish some in their home gardens and sow some to share with the restoration project.
