A Bridge Between Cultures
As a Lunder Institute Fellow, Passamaquoddy language keeper, and cultural preservationist, Dwayne Tomah wants to share a message of unity and truth
When Dwayne Tomah held ceremonial eagle feathers joyfully aloft and gave the benediction at this spring’s baccalaureate ceremony, the poetry and warmth of his words flowed across Miller Lawn like water moving through a river.
Tomah, a Passamaquoddy language keeper, storyteller, and cultural preservationist, deftly wove together tradition and metaphor to connect the bright-faced members of the Class of 2024 arrayed before him with the land where they had lived and studied for four years. He compared them to the young salmon and alewives who struggled and worked to find their place in the world. Now, prepared, he told the graduates that they were “ready to migrate into your very own mysterious and vast sea.”
The moment resonated with the graduates and their families, and it showcased Tomah’s gift for bridging cultures. He’ll bring that gift back to campus several times this coming year as he completes a year-long fellowship with the Lunder Institute for American Art.
This week, Tomah, who received an honorary degree from Colby in May, returned to campus for events that included a lunchtime conversation about decolonizing pedagogy, or finding new approaches to teaching and learning that acknowledge the power structures associated with colonization and center Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing.
At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, he will perform with Wabanaki musician Mali Obamsawin’s sextet at the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts.
“The more we educate, the more we do outreach, and the more we build these relationships with one another, the better off we will be,” Tomah said. “For me to be able to receive this kind of prestigious recognition from Colby College speaks volumes of their commitment to getting a deeper understanding of Wabanaki people. I think the most important thing for me to articulate is that we must work together. And we must talk about historical truth—in its proper context.”
Shifting the pendulum
A good place to consider both history and context is the Sipayik Museum, where Tomah is director and curator. The museum is part of the Passamaquoddy Pleasant Point Reservation, also known as Sipayik, and there are wonderful things inside. Intricate ashwood and fragrant sweetgrass baskets, an antique canoe, a ceremonial drum, mannequins clad in tribal garb, vintage photos of tribal members from long ago, Indigenous tools, books, and much more—all of which help to tell the whole story of the Passamaquoddy people.
Finding a better way to tell stories and share history are among the keys to doing better in the future, Tomah said, acknowledging that correcting centuries of bad information is not for the faint of heart.
“It takes time. It takes patience, cooperation, resiliency, and most of all, trust,” he said.
It also requires taking a closer look at a 500-year-old concept that established a framework for the European domination of the Indigenous people of Maine and many other places. That is the Doctrine of Discovery, the legal and religious concept established by papal decrees in the 15th century and used for centuries by European monarchs to justify Christian colonial conquest of non-Christian people and lands.
The doctrine, which the Vatican formally repudiated in March 2023, set the stage for the long timeline of atrocities committed against Indigenous people, which included the broadscale eradication of cultures, forced assimilation, and the removal of Indigenous children from their families. These are all things that happened in Wabanaki communities in Maine in the recent, as well as the long-distant past. Talking about them honestly matters, he said.
“The people that are in power have always navigated the narrative. And that’s the reason why it’s so important for us to be able to change that pendulum and to start to understand the truth,” he said. “We’ve got to really talk about other perspectives because a lot of people still believe that Christopher Columbus discovered America. A lot of people don’t even realize that our people still exist here. So we are the lost secret. Not talked about. Invisible people.”
That perception is not true, he said, adding a few words in his language that convey a simple, yet profound, truth.
“We are still here.”
Lunder Fellowship
Through his work as a Lunder Fellow, Tomah will continue to share such truths. The Lunder Institute for American Art, founded in 2017 through the generosity of Peter Lunder ’56, D.F.A. ’98, Life Trustee Paula Lunder, D.F.A. ’98, and the Lunder Foundation, aims to support innovative research and creativity in order to expand the boundaries of American art.
Every year, the institute awards fellowships intended to foster experimentation, growth, and research at all stages of artistic and scholarly practice by providing space, time, and resources for fellows to push boundaries in their field. Fellows engage with the College community through visits, residencies, academic engagement, public programs, and more.
As the year unfolds, Tomah will bring something special with him to campus: his knowledge of the oldest ethnographic field recordings known to exist, the Passamaquoddy wax cylinders. Anthropologist Walter Jesse Fewkes made them in 1890 on a research trip to Calais, Maine, with an early audio-recording device he borrowed from inventor Thomas Edison. He recorded Passamaquoddy tribal members singing songs, telling stories, and pronouncing words in their language.
Tomah, the youngest known fluent speaker of Passamaquoddy, has dedicated his life to language and culture preservation. Over the last few years, he has worked with the Library of Congress to transcribe and translate the wax cylinder recordings, which he and others believe are critical to passing Passamaquoddy culture and language on to future generations.
“It’s a profound responsibility to be the youngest fluent speaker,” he said. “The more you are able to use that language and be able to understand how to use it in different ways, different contexts, it becomes a part of you.”
A thread that binds
Tomah has taken many approaches to preserving the Passamaquoddy language. He’s edited the Passamaquoddy dictionary, helped create his tribe’s Passamaquoddy language app for iPhones, and teaches language classes. He has served on the Passamaquoddy Tribal Council and is involved in repatriation efforts and land return, the movement to return land to Indigenous people. He’s also done a lot of outreach work throughout the state, including putting 25,000 miles on his car in just eight months traveling to schools, colleges, museums, and more, sharing the Passamaquoddy language and talking about the Doctrine of Discovery.
Throughout it all, there are threads that connect his work and mission to the past, and hopefully the future. Foremost among them is the idea that one can’t preserve language and culture in a vacuum. To do it correctly, you must protect the environment, too.
“I think about my ancestors, and the message that they were trying to send is consistent with the message that I’m sending, and the message has never changed,” Tomah said. “Care for your mother—that’s the message. Coexist with your mother, and look out for your mother, because your mother’s looking out for you. She’s the life-giver.”
He’s looking forward to continuing the conversation about language, culture, and environment at the College and to challenging students and others to embrace different perspectives about Indigenous peoples and the events of the last 500 years.
“We have an old, old way of thinking, and we must be able to get into people’s minds and change that,” he said. “That’s going to be our role: to send these messages of unity, send these messages of historical truth, send these messages about working together. Send these messages about responsibility to our mother.”
