North by Northeast: Wabanaki, Akwesane Mohawk, and Tuscarora Traditional Arts

by Kathleen Mundell

Overview

Thirty-five traditional artists explore their connection to place, tradition, and cultural identity.

For generations, Native American traditional artists in the Northeast have passed on their culture through beadwork, basketry, canoe making, wood carving, and quilting. Through the work and words of over thirty-five traditional artists living and working primarily in Maine and New York, North by Northeast explores these artists' connection to place, tradition, and cultural identity. A tribute to the resourcefulness and creativity of contemporary practicing artists from the Wabanaki, Akwesasne Mohawk, and Tuscarora tribes, the book is beautifully illustrated with the work of photographers Cedric Chatterley, Peggy McKenna, Jere DeWaters, and Peter Dembski.  Essays by Salli Benedict, Sue Ellen Herne, Jennifer Neptune, Theresa Secord and Lynne Williamson.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780884483052
Publisher:	Tilbury House Publishers
Publication date:	08/31/2008
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Director of Cultural Resources, a nonprofit working with communities on sustaining their local culture, Kathleen Mundell has had a long involvement with the arts, folklore, ethnographic marketing, cultural preservation, and exhibit work. She has a BA in Literature from SUNY, Collage at Purchas, NY, and a Master's in Folklore from Indiana University at Bloomington.

Editorial Reviews

"Kathleen Mundell writes 'North by Northeast:Wabanaki,Akwesasne Mohawk, and Tuscarora Traditional Arts' in a collaborative spirit, letting the artists speak directly about their art and culture. Although the book focuses largely on baskets, it also covers beadwork, canoe making, wood carving and quilting. What's difficult to escape is the sense of longstanding tradition that binds the artists and their communities, giving the book a compelling cultural text."— American Style

"An in-depth view of how contemporary artists continue to practice the traditional arts of basketmaking, beadwork, birchbark canoe making, and woodcarving."— Indian Country Today

"Mundell has been gathering material for this book for 15 years. Native American traditional artists-over 35 of them living primarily in Maine and New York-explore here the connection to place, tradition, cultural identity. Mundell features profiles of the artists themselves with their own words and illustrations of their individual work....the artwork-exquisitely photographed here-especially the basketmaking-is breathtaking in its intricacy of design and utility, particular shapes and artistic renderings often handed down through generations in families....Mundell's collaboration with the basketmakers has resulted in a multi-tribal effort to preserve the ash-basketry tradition and the creation of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. This book is part of a traveling exhibition of the basketmaking and beadmaking arts touring the northeast beginning in earlier 2008."— Working Waterfront

From the Publisher