RAIN DATE 5/19: Re-Site 2024 | Maya Tihtiyas Attean – Roots of Resilience: Echoes of Connection immersive installation opening event
2:00-4:00pm
Due to inclement weather on May 5th and the use of audio equipment for a sound installation outdoors, the opening event will now be held on Sunday, May 19th from 2-4pm. The original reception on May 5th was intended to coincide with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Awareness Day. The event is an opportunity to experience the audio component of this project live with the photographic banner installation by Maya Attain.
Maya Attean’s Roots of Resilience: Echoes of Connection reveals the historical narrative of the relationship between the Wabanaki and the First Parish Church in Machigonne, or what is now known as Portland, Maine. Maya’s work illuminates the deeds of 1757 where church leader Reverend Thomas Smith and his cohorts profited from bounty incentives outlined in the Spencer Phips Proclamation to lead a caravan to perpetrate violence upon the Wabanaki people. As Maya writes, “The attempted genocide of my people failed to extinguish our unyielding spirit; I stand as a testament to that survival.”
Through the use of photography against the left side of the First Parish Church Meeting House in the Memorial Garden, these images serve as a solemn reminder of the connections lost to history’s shadows, juxtaposed against the enduring bonds illuminated by the Wabanaki, people of the Dawn. Simultaneously, an accompanying audio piece, blends chants with archival recordings of Wabanaki children from 1996, weaving sounds that echo a shared continued legacy. This is a response to acknowledge these harsh truths and speak to the strength and legacy of Indigenous ancestry and the Indigenous experience in Maine.
Maya Tihtiyas Attean (b. 1994) is a Wabanaki artist. She grew up on the Penobscot Nation Reservation. Her experience growing up on a reservation then migrating to living in a city has given her a unique perspective of two worlds that merge together through marrying techniques of multiple cultures within her work. She earned her BFA with honors in Photography in May of 2023 from MECA&D. She is currently one of the 2024 BIPOC artist studio residents at SPACE Gallery in Portland, Maine. She continues to make images that seek to explore the intersection of the earth and those that live on it through the lens of time, trauma, and connection.
SPACE is pleased to present Re-Site 2.0, the second iteration of the site-specific, temporary public art and Portland history-telling initiative we first launched in 2020. This year’s series features artwork by James Allister Sprang, Maya Tihtiyas Attean, Ashley Page, Rachel Alexandrou, and Ling-Wen Tsai, in collaboration with historians Seth Goldstein and Libby Bischof.