May 27 puppet show

Remember The Way puppet show with Heather Henson

At the Cross Mills Library by the Tomaquag Museum

“Where water flows and creatures return, balance is remembered.”

Join Heather Henson in connecting to your local land and waterways. Participants will employ kinetic learning to explore planetary movements and seasonal rhythms. Together, we will journey through the interconnected waterways and shifting landscapes of the planet guided by the cultural keystone animals; Whales, Cranes, Sturgeon, and Bison.

May 1 community meeting - South County Rising

Tomaquag Museum’s New Exhibition

"Revolution to Reclamation, Freedom through Indigenous Sovereignty"

Tomaquag Museum's new exhibit, "Revolution to Reclamation, Freedom through Indigenous Sovereignty" opened on April 22nd to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the United States. 

While the American Revolution serves as a historical focal point, the exhibit moves beyond commemoration to connect the past with the present through an exploration of land, freedom, responsibility, and enduring Indigenous presence.

This exhibition represents the first complete transformation of the museum's gallery space since 1996. Executive Director Lorén Spears encourages past visitors to return, noting that many will scarcely recognize the reimagined space. 

Designers at SmokeSygnals have reshaped the gallery through innovative exhibit fabrication and immersive design. At its center is a striking art installation of life-sized figures set against a watercolor forest, creating a visual anchor while emphasizing the enduring connection between Indigenous peoples and the land. 

As Spears explains, "We are the land, the land is us. What we do to the land, we do to ourselves. This is ancient wisdom passed down through our ancestors".

March 24: Discussion with indigenous author at Tomaquag

Two re-scheduled Tomaquag Museum that were snowed out

 

January 27 session of the Tomaquag Museum book club

Tomaquag benefit concert, January 23

Native art sale at Quonnie Grange, December 6

Tomaquag Museum's Loren Spears discusses new book by acclaimed author on Monday

Wednesday presentation in Peacedale by the Tomaquag Museum

Enrollment now open though September 6 for Salt Pond Smart

New program to protect Rhode Island’s coastal waters

Kristen Curry

Enrollment is now open for Salt Pond Smart: a new program to protect Rhode Island’s coastal waters.

Enrollment is now open through Sept. 6 to join Salt Pond Smart, a new community engagement initiative offered through the University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension. Designed for homeowners along Rhode Island’s southern coast, Salt Pond Smart empowers residents to take meaningful action to protect and improve water quality in the state’s treasured coastal salt ponds.

Aging septic systems and fertilizer use, especially in densely developed areas, contribute excess nutrients, bacteria, and other pollutants to the salt ponds. These problems have led to shellfish closures, algal blooms, and damage to the ponds’ ecosystems. Salt Pond Smart helps residents make property management decisions that reduce nutrient pollution, which is essential to safeguarding public health and preserving the ecological integrity of these fragile environments.

Tomaquag Museum event in Charlestown August 13

Tomaquag Museum and YOU

Presentation on August 12

Tomaquag Museum is Rhode Island's only museum entirely dedicated to telling the story of the Indigenous peoples of this land. Whether you are traveling in Apponaug ("waiting place"), Aquidneck Island ("at the island"), or Chepachet ("boundary/separation place"), evidence of Rhode Island's Native origin is plentiful. "There is no Rhode Island history without Narragansett history".

The Museum is located in Exeter, RI but Tomaquag also exists in your community! Our Museum Educators visit K-12 grade classrooms to share the history and culture of the local Native Peoples, Our virtual programs connect researchers, teachers, and culture seekers to Tomaquag resources. Businesses and organizations benefit from cultural sensitivity training and other DEIA topics from qualified facilitators. The organization is much more than a museum.

We invite you to join us on August 12th learn about Tomaquag Museum, its history, purpose, and vision for the future.

Quonochontaug Grange
5662 Post Road, Charlestown, RI 02813
Doors Open at 5:30 PM
Presentation begins at 6:00 PM

RSVP Today

This free event will feature a presentation from Tomaquag's Executive Director, Lorén Spears, outlining the Museum's programming and purpose. You will also get a special "insider peek" at the new Tomaquag Museum & Research Center coming soon to Kingston, RI.

RSVP by August 11th. This is a limited-capacity event. Registration is required.

URI Cooperative Extension program aims to rescue and recycle food by changing the way Rhode Islanders interact with it

Course applications now open for six-week Food Recovery for Rhode Island

Kristen Curry

Applications are open for Food Recovery for Rhode Island at the University of Rhode Island (FRRI), a community education program for Rhode Islanders offered through URI Cooperative Extension. The six-week course includes online coursework and field experiences that can be completed at participants’ convenience.

Attendees learn how to make the most of their grocery purchases, preserving and storing them properly. Through hands-on experiences exploring the local food system on farms, community gardens, and in kitchens, participants will:

• Gain skills in canning, pickling, dehydrating and freezing the harvest
• Improve their home composting 
• Get involved with community composting
• Rescue surplus food
• Network with inspiring organizations making changes at the grassroots level
• Learn about employment helping schools establish share tables and compost sorting stations in the cafeteria

The reasons for making changes are clear. Wasted food is the most common item in Rhode Island’s Central Landfill with 100,000 tons entering the landfill each year. Yet 38% of state residents experience food insecurity and the demand for food assistance has increased 9% in the past year. Each month, approximately 84,400 Rhode Islanders seek assistance at food pantries across the state.

All Rhode Islanders benefit from reduction of greenhouse gasses by diverting material from the state landfill. In the meantime, community members also benefit when food can be diverted to hunger relief agencies, helping to bolster the state’s emergency food system. 

One participant, Laurel Spears, is using what she learned in her work at the Tomaquag Museum, teaching the indigenous community about modern composting methods, exploring traditional food preservation techniques, and promoting the importance of foraging, growing, and utilizing produce in its entirety.

Narragansett Tribe’s Annual Strawberry Thanksgiving Brings Family, Community Together

Celebration of life and family

By Colleen Cronin / ecoRI News staff

Dawn Spears, a Narragansett Tribe member whose
Ashawaug Farm provided some of the berries
for the event, also connects her love of nature
and her traditions to her art.
(Courtesy of Dawn Spears)

On a rainy Saturday afternoon at Ninigret Park, pops of red stood out against the overcast sky.

Strawberries in lemonade and on shortcake, along with beaded and fabric fruit sewn onto clothes, marked a special celebration for the Narragansett Indian Tribe: Strawberry Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving is one of 13 celebrations held with each moon of the year, said Lorén Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum and a member of the Narragansett Tribe. The museum has hosted the event for many years, but the tradition itself goes back much further.

The most recent iteration of Strawberry Thanksgiving included themed food, Indigenous art booths, dancing, and talks from tribal citizens and other community members.

Despite the dreary weather, hundreds of people, Indigenous and not, attended the outdoor event.

“There’s so many people here,” Spears said. “Even with the rain … people kept coming.”

For Spears, the event is about bringing people together — to share traditions with each other and people who didn’t grow up with them.

“It’s the community,” she said. “It’s that meaning of the berry.”

Robin Spears Jr., a Narragansett artist and Lorén’s husband, agreed.

“Strawberry Thanksgiving, to me, means bringing the community together, you know, tribal community, as well as the outside, having a good time, being able to just show our artwork from all different tribes in the area,” he said.

Citizens of tribal nations from around New England also attended the event, many bringing their own art to display and sell.

Congratulations to Loren Spears

Tomaquag Museum’s Lorén Spears to Be Inducted into R.I. Heritage Hall of Fame

By Colleen Cronin / ecoRI News staff

Lorén Spears will be inducted to the Rhode Island
Heritage Hall of Fame early next month.
(Courtesy of the Tomaquag Museum)

In 2019, Lorén Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum, accepted Chief Sachem Ninigret’s posthumous induction to the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.

Ninigret led the Narragansett and Niantic peoples in the 1600s when the Europeans arrived, bringing disease and violence.

To honor him, Spears performed a ceremony with her brother-in-law, who sang and played drums. Ninigret’s award is displayed at the Tomaquag Museum, so others can learn about him.

Six years later, it’s Spears’ turn to be honored as a 2025 Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame inductee.

The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame was founded in 1965 to celebrate “any individual who has brought credit to Rhode Island, brought Rhode Island into prominence, and contributed to the history and heritage of the state.” Inductees are required to have been born in the state or to have lived, studied, or worked here for a significant amount of time.

In a recent phone interview, after Spears described attending the 2019 awards, she added “to then later be honored in the same establishment, I think that’s extremely special.”

Spears is no stranger to prestigious awards. In 2016, she accepted the National Medal for Museum and Library Service for the Tomaquag Museum, an organization that she has helped grow since she took the helm.

Native American artists market this Saturday

Thanksgiving: A holiday with two decidedly different narratives

“It’s not just that this is a history. It’s a legacy that we need to reckon with.”

By Dana Richie 

As families and friends gather around warmly lit tables and celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday by sharing turkey, mashed potatoes, and gratitude, they may want to learn the history of the holiday and its consequences from the descendants of the people who were here before the Pilgrims.

Indigenous people in North America have been celebrating thanksgivings long before the first colonial encounter.

Members of the Narragansett Nation and other tribes across the country observe 13 thanksgivings throughout the year including cranberry, green bean and maple sugar, each corresponding with the first crop of the given harvest season.

Lorén Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum said that these celebrations are for “giving thanks for the bounty and the gratitude to the creator for all of the gifts of the lands and  waters, gifts that our ancestors and people today still show gratitude for.” She explained that they use the turtle shell as a calendar and the 13 thanksgivings correspond with squares in the center of the shell.

Spears said that the American Thanksgiving is fictional and does not align with any of their celebrated thanksgivings.