Many can claim a heritage rich in New England history replete with ancestors whose actions and deeds both great and small helped to shape socioeconomic realities that built our nation. But how many are able to take on the research necessary to put flesh and personality on those who have been long buried. That takes intense interest in the subject matter and the ability to weave a history that sometimes requires imagination along with solid facts.

            Such a person is Helen Frink, author of “Oil, Ice, and Bone: Arctic Whaler Nathaniel Ransom” (2015, Randall.) Through her telling of Ransom’s whaling exploits, Frink gives this blood relative renewed life if but for a brief hour.

            Beyond her academic and literary talents, Frink is also one darn good storyteller. On February 16, she entertained while giving an in-depth presentation sponsored by the Mattapoisett Museum, taking her audience on a cold, wet, dangerous journey into the realities of the whaling industry.

            Before we venture onto the high seas with Nathaniel Ransom, let us say that when digging into the past, piecing together sometimes the tiniest fragments of data is not for those who are in a hurry. Such investigatory efforts take time, patience and persistence.

            Armed with those virtues, Frink was aiming to find out more about one great (possibly great, great) grandfather (Matthew Hiller) when she happened upon a newspaper article that mentioned Ransom, another of her forefathers. Intrigued by this detail, she went down the rabbit hole of time and found an unexpected person of interest. Her research would become the genius of her book.

            Frink said that Ransom was born in 1845 in Carver. The Ransom family moved to Mattapoisett in 1855. At age 14 Ransom completed his schoolroom education, an age generally speaking, when formal education ended and the work of living began, especially for boys. For this young man, like hundreds of others before him, shipping out on a whaler to earn one’s keep would become the hallmark of his life.

            But these were not the days of whaling when a ship could simply slip into the Atlantic a few hundred miles off shore and find whales. Overfished and nearly completely obliterated from local oceans, whalers had to travel farther and farther away from homeport in search of marketable whales, taking years to return.

            Ransom would eventually find himself hunting primarily between Alaska and southern climes chasing bowhead whales. From the journal that he kept nearly every day of his life, Ransom recorded the high-sea journeys he took, material that Frink would later plumb for details. One detail was the amount he earned. A good trip taking several years might net as much as a thousand dollars, a princely sum for that age. The young Ransom’s hunting success meant he could marry, buy a home and plan for his eventual and permanent return.

            But the story Frink shared didn’t shy away from the extreme brutality of the whale hunt.      She described the spears, later the use of explosive charges, the rendering of whale blubber, the smell, the slime and filth. She also shared Ransom’s experience of encountering starving whalers who had survived the loss of their ship but were near death when found. They had apparently been cared for by indigenous people living along the coast, subsisting on walrus blubber, only walrus blubber. Ransom would urge his fellow whalers to stop killing the walrus, a practice being done on a massive scale to harvest their blubber and tusks. He understood how much the native people depended on the walrus. His compassionate conservation efforts were for naught, Frink said.

            The Civil War was noted as having an impact on the whaling industry with the production of better and more accurate weaponry. Frink also said that the use of bowhead baleen for all manner of women’s fashions drove the market demand for decades.

            Then there was the story of 33 whaling ships stranded in the ice pack, yet all were saved by other whalers. And that during subsequent trips to that area, wood from the stranded ships was scavenged for fuel.

            Ransom would spend a total of 15 years whaling, eventually settling down with his family on Foster Street in Mattapoisett around 1871 and dying in 1910 at the age of 61. Frink said it was believed that the hard years aboard whaling ships trimmed years off his life.

            Portions of Ransom’s diary are available to view at whalinghistory.org. Frink’s book is available at all major outlets.

Mattapoisett Museum

By Marilou Newell

            Agenda-driven, social-media platforms may have hope of a future that includes civil discourse on controversial matters, thanks to a generation of students who are practicing good listening habits as members of their high schools’ chapters in the Cultural Clubs of America, Inc. (CCA.) Old Rochester Regional High School chapter founder Eddie Gonet, now an ORR senior, says the local chapter has come a long way in a short time.

            “We’ve definitely grown a lot, not only reaching more people but grown in what we’re learning,” said Gonet. “We’re having much deeper conversations, learning how to respectively discuss.”

            Last week, the ORR Cultural Club took part in a Zoom-style conference titled “Know Your Roots” together with chapters representing Tabor Academy, Fairhaven, Dartmouth and Nipmuc (Mendon-Upton.)

            The virtual conference aimed at raising awareness of local Native American history and culture featured Cora Peirce, an “historic preservationist” and member of the Pocasset Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

            A controversial subject in many high schools has been mascot logos and names, and it so happens Dartmouth High School’s mascot is the Indians and Nipmuc’s is the Braves.

            Noting that Peirce said she is offended by the use of Native American names as sports mascots, Gonet was interested to learn that Dartmouth representatives reported support from Native Americans who have said they feel honored by it.

            “It’s something we’ve really been aiming to a point where we can have discussions. It’s all about open discussion,” said Gonet.

            Peirce’s words were nonetheless compelling.

            “She was so detail oriented I could actually see in my mind every place she referenced,” said CCA Board member and Old Rochester teacher Michael Nailor in a press release from ORR.

            Nailor noted in the release how the event helped students learn about local Native American landmarks and some that have been desecrated by construction. Many students, he said, realized that they had passed by such landmarks without realizing their significance. He said that ORR student Isabella Hunter was surprised to learn that a rock bearing a handprint she had visited at her grandparent’s house is a sacred Native American stone.

            “The stuff we learned you just don’t learn in the textbooks,” said Gonet, who founded ORR’s chapter as a junior and early on helped arrange for a guest speaker from El Salvador. “It was good to open eyes and open minds to other experiences out there. It equips people with a toolbox to go out into the world.”

            The latest conference on local Native American heritage confronted students with information that a waste-collection area on Tinkham Lane was built at the site of a native burial ground.

            Each school’s representatives shared information about their own school culture and atmosphere. In the spring, Nipmuc holds a “Wellness Week” that culminates in a weekend devoid of homework. Fairhaven students discussed their social justice course and the historic architecture of their school. ORR students talked about “kindness week” and pep rallies, and Dartmouth representatives discussed their “Dartmouth’s Finest” talent competition.

            ORR Principal Mike Devoll said in the press release that while neighboring schools are accustomed to “locking horns in debate teams or sports games,” their participation in Cultural Club “was a great opportunity for schools to share-out, connect and learn from one another.”

By Mick Colageo

            The Marion Art Center’s latest installation focuses and pays homage to Native American works of art. To accomplish that, Executive Director Jodi Stevens networked and found a trio of artists whose art bear that theme. From traditional Native American regalia to inspired portraits of chiefs and woodcarvings harkening totem poles, the MAC is once again sharing the wonders of artistic expression in all its magnificence.

            When we visited the MAC, Stevens was putting the finishing touches for the exhibit in the two galleries where works done by Vincent Mancini, Makerjake aka Jacob Ginga, and Max Brown-Garcia are now on display.

            The trio’s works of visual splendor complement one another in terms of theme and Native American art but also inform the visitor that this genre is alive and thriving in the 21st century. Each artist reaches into Native American culture seeking inspiration that has aided him in his journey to create pieces of art that feel both familiar and new.

            Vincent Mancini tells of his first exposure to Native American culture when at a very young age his family attended annual powwows. He would become so enthralled by the people, the music and the regalia as to find himself years later still thinking about the events. “Those powwows touched me and stayed with me.” Now, albeit many years later, the artist creates pieces that honors the original inhabitants of these lands using new techniques as well as natural elements.

            Mancini’s works incorporate the use of naturally molted feathers affixed to canvas, creating what may be described as feather mosaics but what he calls “feather delineation.” He is especially drawn to wild turkey feathers, whose iridescent feathers have become portraits of beloved and well-known Native Americans such as Geronimo and Chief Weetamoo.

            To create his version of Geronimo, Mancini used the subtle color and tonal variations of the feathers, painstakingly gluing 1-inch-square feather tiles to a canvas. The process took more than six months, he said. After years of perfecting the technique of using feathers to create art, his portraits demonstrate how powerfully shading can depict muscle tone and facial features not with conventional paints, pastels or charcoals but from the colors imbued in the feathers.

            “I’ve always been an outdoor person,” Mancini shared, and from the many hours he immersed himself in outdoor pursuits he would always collect feathers found along the way. But it would be the wild turkey feathers that provide the basis of many for his creations.

            On the first-floor gallery upon entering the space that initially greets MAC visitors is Geronimo, a large canvas covered in shades of brown, gray, black and ivory created from hundreds of tiny, hand-cut feathers placed with precision. “I wanted it to look like pixels on a TV screen,” Mancini explained. And while that is the end result, the clarity of the image leaves no room for guesswork – it is clearly Geronimo.

            Although he is not himself of Native American heritage, Mancini pushes the viewer to think about stereotypes and that our collective expectations of Native American culture should continue to evolve and be supportive.

            Makerjake does have Native American DNA and feels deeply connected to those ancestorial roots through his mother and grandfather. His DNA also is saturated with talent in beadwork and the making of regalia. So it isn’t surprising that, while he feels as if his feet are planted in two worlds, “Native American and colonial,” he draws primary inspiration from tribal themes.

            That is not to say Makerjake’s work isn’t contemporary. Using three-dimensional laser programs and tools, Makerjake creates a fusion of street art mixed with indigenous themes. There are lizards, fish and faces that are reminiscent of totem-pole carvings now reimagined. Many of his pieces give the sense of woodblock carvings and prints, a creative style he said he is going to continue to explore.

            Of the works on exhibit, Makerjake said, “The layered wooden pieces have evolved over time.” He calls them pieces of “visual storytelling.”

            The third artist, Max Brown-Garcia, shares his interpretation of traditional regalia. Feathered headpieces, along with bustles and implements, add a rich layer of heritage and skill in the making of ceremonial costumes and associated pieces. He explained that eagle feathers, claws and other animal elements can be obtained through registration with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, which distributes materials to Native Americans for such important creative and religious pursuits.

            Brown-Garcia is new to the art world in terms of displaying his crafts, but he has been creating wearable art for many years. He shared that he is fully enjoying the opportunity presented through this show and where it may lead. He said he would pursue other exhibition venues in the future and possibly the concept of creating decorative works.

            Talent in Native American crafting runs through Brown-Garcia’s family. “My mother is well known for her beadwork.” He also credited his mother, Nancy Brown-Garcia, for getting him interested in learning how to make male regalia pieces. He is a member of the Narragansett tribe and believes, as his ancestors believed, “these gifts are not ours.” They belong to everyone.

            This MAC show can easily be called one of the best yet. Full of color, singularly unique in imagery, and reaching deeply into the united spirit and visual poetry we all need. One feels a reverence in every corner and every space in the galleries, a reverence for nature and for humankind – a reverence emitting from the art itself.

             A full, in-person artists’ reception is planned for Friday, February 25, from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. The gallery is open on Thursday through Saturday between 10:00am and 2:00pm. The exhibit Exploring Native American Culture: Art, Craft and Inspiration runs from now through March 25.

Marion Art Center

By Marilou Newell