Traditional Arts Spotlight - Abenaki Basketmaking and Fiber Art
Master Artists: Sherry Gould and Vera Sheehan
Apprentices: Sherry Gould and Vera Sheehan
Traditional Artforms: Abenaki Fancy Basketmaking and Abenaki Fiber Art, Spinning techniques
The 2022-2023 ‘cohort’ of the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program includes 12 collaborations between mentor artists and apprentices who are working together to keep traditional cultural expressions vital and relevant to the communities that practice them. With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and a longstanding partnership with the Vermont Arts Council, Vermont Folklife initiated this program in 1992 to support the continued vitality of Vermont's living cultural heritage. In this ongoing series of Field Notes we’ll introduce you to some of this year’s program participants and the traditional art forms they practice.Vermont Folklife has been documenting the work of participants in the Apprenticeship Program since its inception. These interviews and audio-visual records are part of an ongoing collection in our Archive centered around traditional arts, music, and trades.
Vera and Sherry in 2022, after their first year of working together
Sherry Gould (Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation) and Vera Sheehan (Elnu Abenaki Tribe), are both lifelong artists and their apprenticeship structure is unique. They are both recognized in their communities as expert artists in different art forms. Sherry is a basketmaker. In 2006 she became a juried basketmaker through the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen in 2006, being the first Native American artist in the league. Sherry and her husband, Bill, work to maintain basketmaking as part of Abenaki culture through teaching other Abenaki people through traditional arts programs in New Hampshire and Vermont. Sherry is also a state representative in New Hampshire. Vera practices knotting: Abenaki textile weaving using natural fibers such as milkweed (also referred to as twining). She is also an educator and activist, the Director of the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association, and the Founder of the Abenaki Arts & Education Center, and previously a Museum Educator and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
Vera and Sherry decided to create a dual apprenticeship structure where they would each participate as both master artist and apprentice, each learning from the other’s expertise. They are in the second year of apprenticing together and we’re thrilled to have them involved in the program. Their goal in working together is to expand their individual knowledge and skill sets and they also identified “transferable skills,” between their two art forms, that would give them an advantage in learning a new art form. Both basketmaking and knotting involve weaving together or intertwining strands of material and require a combination of traditional ecological knowledge about materials and harvesting techniques.
Earlier this month, Sherry and Vera both participated in an Abenaki basketmaking and knotting demonstration as part of the Mount Kearsage Indian Museum’s 22nd Annual Powwow in Warner, NH. Vermont Folklife’s Executive Director, Kate Haughey, visited the event. Sherry and Vera are both deeply involved in continuing and promoting Abenaki cultural expressions and their apprenticeship through VTAAP is just one of many settings where they share and exchange their traditional knowledge. At the demonstration there were multiple artists present who were participating in apprenticeships, both with Sherry and Vera, and also with Sherry’s husband, Bill Gould, who is also a master basketmaker. Sherry described the artists collectively as an “intertribal group,” including members from Elnu Abenaki, Nulhegan Abenaki, and Odanak Abenaki tribes. “Some of us were funded through the VT Folklife and some of us were funded through the NH Council on the Arts, so we’re very, very blessed to have the sister organizations on both sides of the [Connecticut] River–which is our highway–supporting the work that we do to continue this wonderful tradition.”
Below we share some photos from the Powwow and some audio clips of Sherry and Vera talking about their experiences, recorded at the event.
Mount Kearsage Indian Museum’s 22nd Annual Powwow
Kate made some recordings with Sherry and Vera while spending time at the Powwow.
Listen for the sounds of dancing and music in the background.
Vermont Folklife is thrilled to be in the process of collaborating with Sherry and Vera to create a podcast about Abenaki traditional arts, which will be part of a three-part Vermont Folklife audio documentary titled “The Arts That Shape Us,” thanks to generous funding from Vermont Public’s Made Here Fund, release date: March 2024.
Anita is another apprentice working with Sherry to learn Abenaki basket weaving.
Milkweed fibers used in knotting and an example of a small bag made of cordage
Sherry and Vera’s display poster sharing photos from their co-apprenticeship.
Made Here
VT Folklife is working in collaboration with Vera and Sherry and other artists participating in the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program to create a three part podcast series titled The Arts That Shape Us, exploring the nuance and complexity of what the traditions "of Vermont" really are.
This project is generously supported through Vermont Public’s “Made Here” fund.