New film at Old State House highlights Cambridge’s ties to colonial ‘scalp bounties’
““Bounty,” the newly installed film at Boston’s Old State House, is only nine minutes long, but its powerful and disturbing message looms much larger for audiences. Whether tourists or locals, visitors to the Old State House usually expect to tour the 1713 building to glimpse the legislative history of Massachusetts, particularly the events and public debates surrounding the Stamp Act, the Boston Massacre and other aspects of Revolutionary history. Now part of Revolutionary Spaces, which also oversees the Old South Meeting House, the Old State House is sharing the history of brutal attacks on New England’s Indigenous peoples as part of Massachusetts colonial policy – a legacy that is surprising and unnerving to those used to a purely celebratory telling of the colony’s story.”
““Bounty,” the newly installed film at Boston’s Old State House, is only nine minutes long, but its powerful and disturbing message looms much larger for audiences. Whether tourists or locals, visitors to the Old State House usually expect to tour the 1713 building to glimpse the legislative history of Massachusetts, particularly the events and public debates surrounding the Stamp Act, the Boston Massacre and other aspects of Revolutionary history. Now part of Revolutionary Spaces, which also oversees the Old South Meeting House, the Old State House is sharing the history of brutal attacks on New England’s Indigenous peoples as part of Massachusetts colonial policy – a legacy that is surprising and unnerving to those used to a purely celebratory telling of the colony’s story.
The exhibit, housed in the Old State House’s council chamber, tells the story of so-called “scalp bounties” – one that has a direct connection to Cambridge as a whole and, in particular, to History Cambridge’s headquarters at 159 Brattle St. The adopted son of Sir William Phips, the first governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Spencer Phips entered politics in his own right in 1721 when elected to the provincial assembly. His family connections had set Phips up for political and economic prominence and, several years after his graduation from Harvard in 1703, he bought a large tract that encompassed much of what is now East Cambridge and settled there with his family.”
Continue reading at Cambridge Day.
Considering History: The Troubling Story of Scalp Bounties
“In 1755, Massachusetts Bay Colony’s Royal Lieutenant Governor issued a scalp bounty proclamation, offering substantial cash payments to any white colonists who brought in the scalps of indigenous men, women, and children. This was just one of approximately 70 scalp bounty proclamations issued in New England in the century before the American Revolution; U.S. governments issued at least another 50 throughout the new nation in subsequent decades. These planned genocides are a profoundly painful part of American history, but are often little remembered or discussed.”
“In 1755, Massachusetts Bay Colony’s Royal Lieutenant Governor issued a scalp bounty proclamation, offering substantial cash payments to any white colonists who brought in the scalps of indigenous men, women, and children. This was just one of approximately 70 scalp bounty proclamations issued in New England in the century before the American Revolution; U.S. governments issued at least another 50 throughout the new nation in subsequent decades. These planned genocides are a profoundly painful part of American history, but are often little remembered or discussed.
Earlier this month, I was invited by the folks at Revolutionary Spaces, the organization that manages both the Old State House and the Old South Meeting House historic sites on Boston’s Freedom Trail, to view the new short film Bounty. Created by Penobscot Wabanaki Native American filmmakers Dawn Neptune Adams, Maulian Dana, and Adam Mazo, with the support of the Upstander Project, this 8.5-minute film screens on a continuous loop in a second-floor room adjacent to the Old State House’s central attraction, a recreation of the Council Chamber where the Massachusetts Colony’s Royal Governors met with their Councils — and where they signed the scalp bounty proclamations that are the subject of this bracing and powerful film.”
Continue reading at the The Saturday Evening Post.
Insider Interview: Bounty with Upstander Project
“Revolutionary Spaces recently sat down with the Upstander Project team, including co-presidents Adam Mazo and Mishy Lesser, to discuss their film Bounty, which follows Penobscot families as they read a scalp bounty that was signed in the Old State House’s Council Chamber. Bounty is currently screening in the Old State House.
What is Bounty? Why is it set in the Old State House?
Adam Mazo: Bounty is a filmic testimony of the immeasurable resistance and survivance of Indigenous Peoples. The film is the cornerstone of a media ecosystem which includes a nine-minute documentary film, several educational videos, a four-lesson comprehensive Teacher’s Guide, digital timeline, and the Bounty Rewards Archive. In the film, Penobscot parents and children resist erasure and commemorate survival by reading and reacting to one of the dozens of government-issued bounty proclamations that motivated colonial settlers to hunt, scalp, and murder Indigenous people.”
“Revolutionary Spaces recently sat down with the Upstander Project team, including co-presidents Adam Mazo and Mishy Lesser, to discuss their film Bounty, which follows Penobscot families as they read a scalp bounty that was signed in the Old State House’s Council Chamber. Bounty is currently screening in the Old State House.
What is Bounty? Why is it set in the Old State House?
Adam Mazo: Bounty is a filmic testimony of the immeasurable resistance and survivance of Indigenous Peoples. The film is the cornerstone of a media ecosystem which includes a nine-minute documentary film, several educational videos, a four-lesson comprehensive Teacher’s Guide, digital timeline, and the Bounty Rewards Archive. In the film, Penobscot parents and children resist erasure and commemorate survival by reading and reacting to one of the dozens of government-issued bounty proclamations that motivated colonial settlers to hunt, scalp, and murder Indigenous people.”
Continue reading at Revolutionary Spaces.
Bound together by stories: Māoriland Film Festival 2024
“Ōtaki is a small town on the southern side of Te Ika-a-Māui, the North Island of Aotearoa. Like many small towns in New Zealand, Ōtaki centres on a quiet main street of family-owned cafes, takeaway restaurants and two pubs, with the Ōtaki Civic Theatre on one end and Te Wānanga o Raukawa Māori University on the other. Drive in one direction and you will hit State Highway 1 to Wellington; drive in the other and you will reach Ōtaki Beach, a thin strip of sand facing out onto the Cook Strait and the Tasman Sea beyond. Over recent decades, Ōtaki has become a hub for Māori cultural identity and language, sixteen percent of its residents and half of the Māori population speak Te Reo Māori—well above the national average of three and 20 percent, respectively.1 In 1921, an Australian production company established a film studio in Ōtaki to make the most of the region’s varied scenery and form ‘Maoriland Films’ as a subsidiary of The New Zealand Moving Picture Co Ltd to shoot short actualities and Charlie Chaplain impersonations.2 Māoriland Film Festival, the largest Indigenous-run film festival in Aotearoa, now in its eleventh year, draws its title from this remnant of early film history.”
Continue reading at Senses of Cinema.
“Ōtaki is a small town on the southern side of Te Ika-a-Māui, the North Island of Aotearoa. Like many small towns in New Zealand, Ōtaki centres on a quiet main street of family-owned cafes, takeaway restaurants and two pubs, with the Ōtaki Civic Theatre on one end and Te Wānanga o Raukawa Māori University on the other. Drive in one direction and you will hit State Highway 1 to Wellington; drive in the other and you will reach Ōtaki Beach, a thin strip of sand facing out onto the Cook Strait and the Tasman Sea beyond. Over recent decades, Ōtaki has become a hub for Māori cultural identity and language, sixteen percent of its residents and half of the Māori population speak Te Reo Māori—well above the national average of three and 20 percent, respectively.1 In 1921, an Australian production company established a film studio in Ōtaki to make the most of the region’s varied scenery and form ‘Maoriland Films’ as a subsidiary of The New Zealand Moving Picture Co Ltd to shoot short actualities and Charlie Chaplain impersonations.2 Māoriland Film Festival, the largest Indigenous-run film festival in Aotearoa, now in its eleventh year, draws its title from this remnant of early film history.”
Continue reading at Senses of Cinema.
It’s Our Time: ‘Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya’ Comes to SIFF
The iinnii (Blackfeet for buffalo) and Indigenous filmmakers are having a moment. 4th World Media Lab alumni Ivy and Ivan MacDonald (Blackfeet siblings and filmmakers) and Daniel Glick’s (Thunderheart Films) award-winning feature documentary, Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya, will be playing at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) Cinema Uptown May 16 and 18, with the filmmakers, their families, and a new cohort of 4th “World Indigenous filmmakers in attendance. Opening this feature is the short film Tahnaanooku’, written by Indigenous filmmaker Justin Deegan (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation, Oglala, Hunkpapa) and co-produced by Seattle-based Tracy Rector. It is part of the second season of the Reciprocity Project, which includes Indigenous shorts from around the world that explore a return to land, languages, and reciprocal relationships.”
“The iinnii (Blackfeet for buffalo) and Indigenous filmmakers are having a moment. 4th World Media Lab alumni Ivy and Ivan MacDonald (Blackfeet siblings and filmmakers) and Daniel Glick’s (Thunderheart Films) award-winning feature documentary, Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya, will be playing at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) Cinema Uptown May 16 and 18, with the filmmakers, their families, and a new cohort of 4th World Indigenous filmmakers in attendance. Opening this feature is the short film Tahnaanooku’, written by Indigenous filmmaker Justin Deegan (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation, Oglala, Hunkpapa) and co-produced by Seattle-based Tracy Rector. It is part of the second season of the Reciprocity Project, which includes Indigenous shorts from around the world that explore a return to land, languages, and reciprocal relationships.”
Continue reading at the South Seattle Emerald.
Bentonville Film Fest Sets ‘Out of My Mind’ as Opener, Unveils Competition Lineup
“Amber Sealey’s Out of My Mind will open the 10th annual Bentonville Film Festival, which aims to amplify female, nonbinary, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC and people with disabilities’ voices in entertainment.
The 10th edition of the festival, which was founded and is chaired by Geena Davis, runs June 10-16 in Bentonville, Arkansas. The lineup of premieres — including narrative, documentary, short film and episodic selections — was announced Tuesday by the Bentonville Film Foundation, founding partner Walmart and presenting sponsor Coca-Cola. The Hollywood Reporter is a media sponsor of the event.”
Continue reading at The Hollywood Reporter.
“Amber Sealey’s Out of My Mind will open the 10th annual Bentonville Film Festival, which aims to amplify female, nonbinary, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC and people with disabilities’ voices in entertainment.
The 10th edition of the festival, which was founded and is chaired by Geena Davis, runs June 10-16 in Bentonville, Arkansas. The lineup of premieres — including narrative, documentary, short film and episodic selections — was announced Tuesday by the Bentonville Film Foundation, founding partner Walmart and presenting sponsor Coca-Cola. The Hollywood Reporter is a media sponsor of the event.”
Continue reading at The Hollywood Reporter.
Interview with Penthea Burns and Esther Anne
Listen to this episode of the “Returning the Land” podcast to hear from two of the women (Esther Anne and Pentha Burns) who had a monumental role in creating the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission answer one of the most frequently-asked questions we hear from Dawnland viewers: What is happening now with REACH? This episode of the Returning the Land podcast is filled with insights about the impact of their work, the power of protest to make change, how they feel now about centering reconciliation, the truths that Maine’s marketing campaigns conceals, and the ongoing ripples in the pond from Dawnland.
Listen to this episode of the “Returning the Land” podcast to hear from two of the women (Esther Anne and Pentha Burns) who had a monumental role in creating the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission answer one of the most frequently-asked questions we hear from Dawnland viewers: What is happening now with REACH? This episode of the Returning the Land podcast is filled with insights about the impact of their work, the power of protest to make change, how they feel now about centering reconciliation, the truths that Maine’s marketing campaigns conceals, and the ongoing ripples in the pond from Dawnland.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Yo-Yo Ma on the perils of being disconnected from nature and each other
“Shortly before dawn on a June day in 2021, I stood in the middle of a field in Acadia National Park in Maine. Beside me were my hosts: elders, storytellers, and musicians from the Wabanaki peoples who have lived in this place — which they call Moneskatik — for thousands of years. We were gathered to celebrate a centuries-old tradition of music and story. Roger Paul began by sharing the legend, first in Wabanaki then in English, of Koluskap, the first man, who had placed their Wabanaki ancestors on the eastern edge of the American continent for a purpose: to welcome the sun each morning. We listened to Lauren Stevens sing against a background of the softly breaking waves of the Atlantic. And as the sun rose through the pines, I was invited to take out my cello. I played a Mongolian tune, a piece that tells of the grasslands that my ancestors may have wandered, long before they came to the concrete of Hong Kong and Paris and New York.”
“Shortly before dawn on a June day in 2021, I stood in the middle of a field in Acadia National Park in Maine. Beside me were my hosts: elders, storytellers, and musicians from the Wabanaki peoples who have lived in this place — which they call Moneskatik — for thousands of years. We were gathered to celebrate a centuries-old tradition of music and story. Roger Paul began by sharing the legend, first in Wabanaki then in English, of Koluskap, the first man, who had placed their Wabanaki ancestors on the eastern edge of the American continent for a purpose: to welcome the sun each morning. We listened to Lauren Stevens sing against a background of the softly breaking waves of the Atlantic. And as the sun rose through the pines, I was invited to take out my cello. I played a Mongolian tune, a piece that tells of the grasslands that my ancestors may have wandered, long before they came to the concrete of Hong Kong and Paris and New York.”
Continue reading at The Boston Globe.