May 2005
Marge Bruchac
Marge Bruchac, Abenaki Indian, is a scholar, performer, and historical consultant who works to decolonize representations of northeastern Native peoples from the 17th century to the present, by disseminating more accurate historical information and deconstructing stereotypes in museums and the academy. She offers a wide variety of lectures and performances for schools, museums and historical societies.
Performances of Songs and Stories: Marge sings traditional and contemporary Abenaki greeting songs, friendship songs, dance tunes and original ballads, accompanied by drum and rattle, both solo and with her husband, Justin Kennick. As a storyteller, she brings the northeastern Native past to life with trickster tales, lesson stories, and historical anecdotes to intrigue, teach, and entertain listeners of all ages. She also performs with both the Dawnland Singers and W'Abenaki Dancers.
Bruchac has been featured at Old Sturbridge Village, Plimoth Plantation, the Old Songs Festival, Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festival, Keepers of the Word Festival, First Nations Festival in Montreal, and other venues, in addition to two tours in the Netherlands and Germany. In 2000, the national "Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers" honored Bruchac as "Storyteller of the Year" for public speaking. In 2001, she was profiled by "Yankee" magazine in the article: "I Still Live: the Survival of New England's Native Tribes."
Academic Work and Publications: Ms. Bruchac has taught college classes on Native history in the Connecticut River Valley at Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is currently a PhD candidate in anthropology. She is a writer and advisor for the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association web site "Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704" on-line at: http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/. Recent publications include "Earthshapers and Placemakers: Algonkian Indian Stories and the Landscape," in "Indigenous Archaeologies: Politics and Practice", edited by Claire Smith and Martin Wobst (Routledge 2005), and "Abenaki Connections to 1704: The Watso and Sadoques Families and Deerfield," in "Captive Histories: Captivity Narratives, French Relations and Native Stories of the 1704 Deerfield Raid", edited by Evan Haefeli and Kevin Sweeney (University of Massachusetts Press 2005).
Community Service: Bruchac serves as the Repatriation Research Liaison for the Five College Repatriation Committee, and has long been a member of the Five College Native American Indian Studies Curriculum Committee. She is an advisor to the Wampanoag Indian Program at Plimoth Plantation, a Trustee of Historic Northampton, a Trustee of Fort Ticonderoga, and a member of the Indigenous Archaeology Advisory Board for the World Archaeology Congress. Marge is also one of the "aunties" elected to the National Caucus of the Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers.
Recordings Available
- Zahkiwi Lintow8ganal / Voices in the Woods - Marge Bruchac & Justin Kennick
- Alnobak - Dawnland Singers
How to Contact Marge
Please contact Marge directly for booking lectures and performances:
Margaret Bruchac
63 Franklin Street Northampton, MA 01060
phone (413) 584-2195 & fax (413) 587-0351
email: maligeet@earthlink.net
Artisans Menu
