Wampanoag Voices - Linda Coombs - Photo

"I am a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe on Martha's Vineyard, and have lived in Mashpee for more than forty years. My two grandchildren are enrolled with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, as was their father and grandfather. I have worked for forty-five years as a museum educator, spent eleven years at the Boston Children's Museum, thirty years in the Wampanoag Indigenous Program at Plimoth Plantation, and nine years at the Aquinnah Cultural Center, a small house museum regarding the Aquinnah Wampanoag. I have been an interpreter, an artisan, a researcher, led workshops and teacher institutes, written children's stories and articles on various aspects of Wampanoag history and culture, and developed and worked on all aspects of a wide variety of exhibits." —Linda Jeffers Coombs, Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) The Peabody Museum asked Wampanoag tribal members to reflect on collections spanning the seventeenth to twentieth centuries and stewarded by the Peabody Museum. Listen in as they share memories, thoughts, and reflections about collection items made by their ancestors and relatives and learn how Wampanoag life and culture continues to flourish today. Photograph of Deacon Thomas Jeffers and Aaron Cooper (left to right). Museum Collection. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, PM 2004.1.283.11