Banner for Beyond the Claims: Stories from the Land and the Heart Event

Beyond the Claims: Stories from the Land and the Heart Event

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Presentation Arts and Culture Community Building Open to Faculty/Staff Open to Students Open to the Public Social Justice

Wed, Apr 22, 2026

4:30 PM – 6 PM EDT (GMT-4)

Visual Arts Center, VIS 018 Kresge

Visual Arts Center

Details

Flyer for Beyond the Claims: Stories from the Land and the Heart Event
Join the Bowdoin College Library and Wabanaki REACH for an archive opening and discussion about the history of the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act and Wabanaki REACH’s most recent truth-telling initiative, Beyond the Claims. This oral history project, soon to be available on Bowdoin Digital Collections, provides critical insight into the human implications of the legislation, while amplifying the voices of those directly impacted by the Act and preserving their stories for cultural continuity.

4:30-5:30 PM: BTC Opening Program
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center
Welcome & Remarks: Kat Stefko, Bowdoin College Library
BTC Opening Remarks & Panel Facilitator: Maria Girouard, Penobscot, Historian
Panelists: Kate Russell, BTC Project Coordinator, Juanita Grant, BTC Story Gatherer Darrell Newell, Story Provider
Audience Q&A

Please join us before the panel discussion for a photography and oral history exhibition, Wikhikonol - 3:00-4:30PM, Ramp Gallery, Hawthorne-Longfellow Library and afterwards for a reception - 5:30-6:30, Main Lounge, Moulton Union.

Explore resources about the event and Maine Indian Land Claims here: https://bowdoin.libguides.com/beyondtheclaims


Agenda

Past Events

Wed, Apr 22, 2026
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Ramp Gallery, Lower Level, Hawthorne-Longfellow Library
Wikhikonol: Stories & Photos Exhibit Opening

Wikhikonol is an educational and immersive experience, marrying image and sound, that invites folks to be active participants as they wander, witness and listen to stories chosen from the Beyond the Claims– Stories from the Land & the Heart interviews. Photography by Nolan Altvater & Maya Attean.

Wikhikon is the Passamaquoddy word originally used for birchbark maps but now refers to book, image, map, or any written material. For this exhibit, it can be understood as a visual tool for storytelling that offers spaces for relations and understandings to emerge from the Land and from the people who are connected to it. It is a term that challenges and resists dominant, western understandings of stories and the Land and the relationships in which they attempt to force Wabanaki people into.

Nolan Altvater said, “This exhibit is a celebration of the myriad relations that Wabanaki people have with our homelands. The stories blur the lines between image and word while inviting the audience to critically think and learn with the literacies of our land beyond the claims of the settlement act”.

Wed, Apr 22, 2026
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Private Location (sign in to display)
Beyond the Claims: Stories from the Land and the Heart Reception

Reception after event in Kresge

Hosted By

Bowdoin College Library | Website | View More Events

Marieke Van Der Steenhoven
Co-hosted with: George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives

Contact the organizers